Mystic
by ThePink1 at Reefside.Net
Summary: Twenty years later, the children of the Guardians and the children of the Mystic Power Rangers are called upon to fight a new Evil that threatens the multiverse.  WxM, CxC, TxN, HxI, NxM, VxCxC, VxZ, PxN, CxM.  Now showing: Chapter 12!
1. Air

_**M. Y. S. T. I. C.**_

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I own neither W.i.t.c.h. nor the Power Rangers. I can claim creatorship for the original characters of Mallory, Chloe, Ignatius, Kyle, Martin, Cordelia, Yvonne, Trip, Arthur, Sampson, and Tobias as well as the plot.

'Air'

Vida Bly sat back, cursing in her grandparents' native Spanish as the traffic ground to _another_ standstill on this scorching hot day. Her two sons paused their near-constant sibling war in the back seat long enough to gape at their normally even-tempered mother. At fourteen, Sampson had taken enough Spanish in school to figure out what she'd said, but poor nine-year-old Toby was blissfully unaware of just how frayed their mother's nerves were getting. '_If Chip and Clare had just stayed in Briarwood with the rest of us,'_ Vida found her oft-repeated thought-train renewing, while running a hand through her russet hair. _'Instead of carting their little family all the way to …'_ Here she had to actually look up the highway at the sign that proclaimed "Heatherfield: 2 miles". Fortunately for her son's blistering ears, she could see the traffic starting to creep forward under the sign and into a final cloverleaf interchange. _'Finally!'_

Sampson Rocca settled his muscular frame back in his seat behind her and let the previous school year's events replay through his head. His father Chip had been struggling as a beat cop, while Momma Clare had lost her Herbalist's Shop lease just before Halloween to some conglomerate looking to expand into Briarwood by buying an entire block of property and building a mall. Then the unbelievable offer had arrived from Heatherfield; almost double Chip's current salary for a seasoned officer, and a relocation allowance for his family. The Thorns had moved within that month, and except for a few brief hours at Christmas, Sam hadn't seen half of his family in almost a year.

Heatherfield spread out before them as they crested the last curve of the freeway interchange. The trio could see several miles of well-manicured suburbs surrounding a small central area of ever-heightening skyscrapers near a bend in the river. Vida let a low chuckle escape at the sight of the mall just ahead of them.

"Well, Sam, be thankful it's just going to be the four of you boys out here for the summer. You know Yvonne would drag you along as pack mules to shop _there_, if she could." Sam and Toby just groaned in unison; their cousin was the same age as Sam, and a complete shopaholic.

"How come the total flake in the family was born to the sensible sister, Mom?" Sam couldn't help but tease. A chronic mallrat as a teenager, Vida's rampant consumerism had been reigned in with the birth of her kids. Nowadays, she restricted herself to one splurge a month or less, and as likely as not, that was usually something new for her recording studio. Becoming the preferred master studio for such notables as Kira Ford and Tanya Sloan had led to a great living, as far as Vida was concerned.

"So how come I gotta stay with Uncle Chip and Aunt Clare, too, huh?" Toby whined. Vida just sighed, and her brown eyes met with Sam's green ones in the rearview mirror for a second. Taking up the unspoken plea from his mother, Sam threw a conspiratorial arm around Toby's shoulders.

"'Cause Mom and Dad want to spend some time alone together, and Aunt Clare can cook better than Aunt Maddie," Sam told him without a second thought. That got Toby and Vida both to laugh.

"Yeah, that's just 'cause Arthur and Trip both eat so much, and Aunt Clare figures if their gonna eat, they might as well eat _good_ food," Toby answered with his father's, Zander's, stock response to the old family joke. Sam joined the other two's laughter. While Trip and Sam had both gotten their father Chip's infamous hyper-metabolism, poor Arthur had taken after his mother Clare; instead of burning off his ample baby fat, he had slowly enlarged to the point that, at just shy of ten years old, he was almost as wide as he was tall.

"At least I know you two won't starve to death staying with them," Vida added, while punching the Thorn's new address into her SUV's navigator. The computer started chirping out directions in its nasally proper British accent, and Vida quickly hit the mute button on it. "Can it, Threepio," she muttered in disgust. She always meant to change the voice subtype on the navigator, but promptly forgot about it when she started flipping through the 350-page manual that had come with the stupid car _just_ for the program. Muted, the program started a head's-up display projection, streaming across the top of the windshield, with a very hard to ignore '_DING_' as every turn was reached.

Sighing as she wended her way deeper into the heart of Heatherfield, Vida started to watch what she passed with increasing interest, determined to find her way back out of this town _without_ resorting to the computer. As they passed an old brick schoolhouse with a wrought-iron fence around it, her senses came briefly on edge, but without a firm target, she squashed her long-disused magical alarm sense back into its cabinet in the back of her mind. Turning the corner around the building, the trio could just make out the name sculpted over the entrance arch in the fence.

"Sheffield Institute. Hey, isn't that where Trip said he's going to school, now?" Sam watched the old building and its sun-yellowing lawn recede behind them, and wondered: did his half-brother find a new school as difficult to adjust to as Sam had found life without his best friend to be?

Two blocks and another turn later, Vida pulled into the underground parking structure for a residential high-rise. Once parked, she directed her sons in the excavation of their luggage from the back of her SUV.

"Geez, mom, did you have to pack ALL our clothes?" Toby grunted as he waddled awkwardly towards the elevator bank at the end of the parking structure, his slight curly-haired frame burdened with a backpack, a duffel bag slung across his chest, and a suitcase in each hand. Vida just grinned sardonically after her boys, watching as Sampson lived up to his name and shouldered an exponentially-sized similar burden without so much as batting an eye.

"Yes, sweetie, I pretty much had to; this way poor Clare can't call me up later and wonder how one of you arrived after a four-hour drive _without any underwear._ " Sam knew this last jibe was aimed at him; in the rush to make sure he was stocked up on all the newest music-chips and latest handheld platform games he wanted to show to Trip over the summer, he'd pretty much neglected to leave room in any of his bags for toiletries or underthings. After Vida'd inventoried their bags last night, she had spotted the oversight in a heartbeat, and had made him pack an _extra_ duffel with the missing articles, citing that 'No son of hers was going commando for the sake of his electro-crack.'

A loooong elevator ride later, the trio entered the 24th floor with luggage in hand, and stumbled down the hall to apartment three. Vida took pity on her overburdened sons and rang the bell from behind Toby, wishing suddenly that she could just run back to her car and not have to face her two friends after all that had led to their strange lives. Even as the errant thought ran through her mind, the apartment door opened to reveal a wiry young man with crewcut fiery copper hair and sea blue eyes. While the trio in the hall took in his faded shredded blue jeans and blinding yellow tee-shirt with the phrase "Twinkies: the fifth food group", said eyes were taking stock of their abundance of luggage and sweaty brows. Then the thin teen grinned, and Trip Thorn, son of Charles and Clare, reached out and embraced Sampson Rocca, son of Charles Thorn and Vida Rocca. Born within hours of each other, the two boys had known the truth about their parents' mixed up lives since they could talk, and raised as brothers despite all the confusion, they'd been fast friends as long as they'd known each other.

The special bond, unfortunately, didn't extend to their two respective younger siblings. Arthur Thorn watched sullenly from the couch just inside the doorway, and upon sight of Toby Bly, scrambled up and ran to his room, slamming the door in his wake.

Clare Thorn came into the living room of her apartment just as her youngest son went streaming past her into the hallway. "Who's at the door, boys?" Upon sight of the foursome clustered in the hall, her whole face lit up. "Vida! Sam! Toby! You made it! And early, too! How did you escape all the traffic on the interchange? I know the traffic this time of day is just insane, and they're rebuilding that one on-ramp …"

Vida grinned and waited for Clare to stop rambling long enough to breathe. The flaxen-haired former apprentice sorceress would never change. "We started out early, that's how. And the navigator in my truck actually knew a couple of useful shortcuts. But hey, we didn't come all this way just to talk traffic reports. Come on, you three, let's get all these bags inside. You're not gonna be camping out in the hallway on the twenty-fourth floor." Shooing the boys ahead of her, Vida made her way into the Thorn's apartment. After a suitably awed look around the living room, she turned back to Clare. "Hey, is it just my imagination, or is this place _bigger_ than your old house back in Briarwood?"

Clare's grin broadened. "Amazing, isn't it? And believe it or not, we're not paying any more for this than we were for that … what was it Maddie called it?"

The two women looked at each other and both answered at the same time: " The Money Pit!" They fell into each other's arms, laughing at the old joke together.

Sam and Trip were already busy digging through the pile of music chips Sam had brought with him, and looked up at the sound of the women's laughter. "Our moms are so weird," Sam muttered, shaking his shaggy bronze hair out of his eyes. Trip just grinned back.

"Hey, where do I put all my stuff?" Toby whined. Clare immediately zoomed over to him, her mothering instincts predisposed to look out for the youngest child present.

"Oh, honey, you're staying in A.J.'s room for the summer. Let's just get you settled in, alright?" Clare deftly steered him down the hallway while divesting him of the duffel from around his neck.

Coming up to the closed door, she knocked twice, then twice again. A low "G'way," was the only answer. Clare blew a wisp of hair out of her ice-blue eyes, counted to seven, and opened the door. Arthur was laying facedown on his bed.

"Come on, A.J., is that any way to behave around a guest? Or family?" Raised alone by her aunt Udonna, Clare was constantly amazed at the sibling bickering of her children and their cousins, and was always admonishing them to be thankful for the family they'd been gifted with.

At her gentle reprimand, her younger son sat up. Hopping down off his bed, he stalked forward, fairly seized Toby's hand in his, and gave it a perfunctory shake. "Welcome to my room; make yourself comfortable, _Tobias._" With an insincere grin at his mother, he stomped back to his bed and flung himself back into his original position. Clare just rolled her eyes at his theatrics.

"Just put your clothes in the tan dresser in the corner, Toby, and come on into the kitchen when you're finished. A.J., why don't you come help me make lunch?" She added, and whirled out of the room.

Arthur pushed himself up on his elbows, sighed "_Fine_," and threw himself out the door after her without giving Toby a second glance.

Toby was halfway through emptying his second suitcase when what he'd seen sank in. Rushing out to the living room, where his older brothers were sitting on Sam's suitcases and busily duking it out with a pair of wi-fi games, he stopped dead between them, disrupting the signal to the two handhelds.

"HEY!" Sam erupted.

"Ah c'MON, squirt, Sam's owed me a rematch since Christmas!" Trip added.

"SAM! Did you _see ARTHUR!"_ Toby belted out. This outburst got their attention, at least. Sam looked towards the kitchen door, where their moms had disappeared to kibitz and cook, and where the young man in question had followed in a sullen huff.

"Now that you mention it …" Sam began, looking around at Trip. "Something _was_ different, but what?"

Toby leaned in to his brother, as if imparting one of the Great Secrets of the Universe, and stage-whispered: "He's THIN."

Sam leaned back, glancing towards the kitchen again, his brow furrowed in the effort to recall his brief glimpse-in-passing of Arthur. "God, how did I miss that. You're absolutely right, shortstuff. So what happened?" he asked Trip, waving a hand in the direction of the boy in question.

Trip's grin was totally self-gratified. "Well, you know how he was always teased back in Briarwood, right?" At the other two's eager nods, he continued. "Well, we got here just in time for all the Halloween parties, and A.J. was getting called 'Pumpkin-boy' and 'Pillsbury' and … well he kinda lost his top about it, and made mom do something about his weight. He's been slimming up ever since, and you've seen the results. Good for him, huh?"

"So why are you guys all calling him A.J.?" Toby inquired. Trip's smile just widened.

"That's even simpler. Seems there's three Arthurs in his class, and the other two were already going by name with a last initial; Arthur C. and Arthur T. Since another Arthur T. was just leading back to the same problem, my bro decided to be called A.J. End of story. Oh, except for the part where he asked _us_ to start calling him that, too."

The conversation of the two mothers in the kitchen had taken a similar turn, at least once Vida's awe of the room itself had ebbed slightly. The entire room gleamed in chrome-on-white, and included nearly every conceivable state-of-the-art appliance. Clare had lost count of the times Vida had said "God, I _so_ want your kitchen."

"Honestly, V, it wasn't that hard. After trying out like four and a half diets, I checked out this old bottle of pills Chip had in the medicine cabinet from after he'd gotten shot in the leg. You remember that, right?"

"Yeah, straight out of the academy, and after a year of knightly training under Daggeron, AFTER serving as a Ranger, and he gets himself clipped in the leg by a fellow rookie in the _practice_ range." Vida shook her head. "Only Chip, huh? But what's that got to do with the lean, mean, new and improved half-pint here?" she asked while ruffling A.J.'s hair. The soon-to-be-10-year-old just squirreled out of reach while continuing to stack the sandwich halves his mom handed him onto the ginormous serving tray Great Aunt Udonna had gives his parents as a wedding present.

"Well, remember that he sat around the whole first two weeks after his surgery just scarfing pizza rolls and playing online fantasy games all hours? He actually developed a paunch doing nothing, and bought this wonky off-the-shelf stuff called 'Flush the Fat'. It worked, but the things it did to his intestines I won't bother to describe. But anyway, I found the old bottle after we'd moved here, and knew the stuff worked, but that it could also be _improved_, so I used an old potionbreaker spell on one of the pills after I ground it up, and made a BETTER version out of all-natural parts!" Clare's triumphant grin was slightly dampened by the wary glance Vida aimed at her son, who was patently ignoring the 'gossiping girls' to the best of his short attention span, even though he knew he was the topic under discussion. "Oh, come on. Vida, you can't possibly still be trying to _ignore_ your magic? Or hide it? Everyone knew who we were afterwards; keeping it from our kids was never gonna happen! You _realize_ that, right?"

Vida just sighed. "Alright, I have to 'fess up to somebody, anyway, but, the magic just doesn't come when called anymore, OK? It's like, when we were done being Rangers, it knew I didn't need to be 'the Embodiment of Air' anymore, or something. I really haven't even tried any magic in a long while, now. And the boys? Well, _my_ two, anyway. They think all those stories of us as Rangers are just that. Stories. Go fig, huh? Here I am, playing out the greatest battle of my life trying to raise two kids so they don't eventually become monsters, and the little devils don't even _believe_ their very hip mother was ever cool enough to actually BE a superhero." Her grin belied the sob story, but Clare saw through to the baser problem even as she was listening to Vida's rant.

"'If you don't use it, you lose it,'" she intoned in a beautiful impression of Udonna's old-world accent. "Vida, that's it! You've just got to shake the cobwebs loose and work a spell or two every once in a while. You know, get back into practice! Try it out over the next couple weeks, while I handle our Testosterone Collective, eh V?" Her grin was infectious, and Vida couldn't help but see the logic behind the suggestion. Her hand suddenly itched with the desire to grasp her old Magistaff, and remembering that she'd brought it in the glove compartment just in case of a true emergency while on the road brought back the memory of the ride through Heatherfield, and the odd flutter she'd felt while passing the Sheffield Institute.

"Hey, speaking of magic, have you ever noticed anything odd about Trip's new school? We passed it on the way here, and it seemed to give off this vibe, like the site of the Gate used to after you resealed it, but we could still feel that _something_ was there, you know?" The totally unexpected question caught Clare off guard for a moment, but she rallied quickly.

"Goddess, V, then it's not just me after all? That place gave me such a case of the shakes when I took Trip up to enroll, that I make Chip go to all the parent-teacher stuff. And HE never notices anything while he's there, which is even MORE maddening! Hey!" The sudden gleam in her blue eyes caused the hair on the back of Vida's neck to try to grow back inside to hide, and the former Ranger knew, just KNEW, that she was _not_ gonna like the next thing to come out of Clare's mouth. "Hey, A.J., honey, why don't you take all that out to the others for us, hmmm? Your aunt V and I'll be out in a minute with the drinks, OK?"

A.J. had gotten so bored with their conversation, that he'd taken the last few sandwiches on top and built them into a castle. Now he very carefully stood and slid the tray off the countertop, and slow-marched his way to the door, all the while carefully balancing his creation. When he reached the door, he spent a few agonizing seconds trying to figure out how to open it without ending up wearing the sandwiches, and finally sent a beseeching look back over his shoulder at his mother. Clare simply melted looking at him, while Vida fought back her laughter so hard her eyes started tearing up. "Of course, baby, just let me … " Clare suddenly looked at Vida instead. Fishing her wand out of her pocket, she thrust it handle-first across the counter. "As good a time as any, V."

Vida Bly gasped, gulped, and hesitantly took the wand from her old friend. The faint stir of wind through her hair told her that yes the magic very well DID remember her, and that it had missed her terribly, as she suddenly realized she missed it, with all her heart. Standing slowly, she turned with firm resolve to the problem of the closed door. Waving poor sweating A.J. to step back a little just in case, she waited until he'd taken three careful steps the other way, squinted her eyes squarely at the door, and after carefully visualizing _exactly_ what she wanted the door to do, she whirled the wand at it.

Crafted for Clare as a journeywoman's instrument by Udonna from the Ironwood of Rootcore itself and inlaid with scale-shards from Fireheart, the dragon the Rangers had raised from a hatchling, the faithful instrument knew what was commanded of it and performed the task admirably. Clare's kitchen door gave an almighty creak, and spun out to a perfect 90 degrees with a loud CRACK! Clare's jaw dropped, and A.J. scurried out the door without a backwards glance, not caring anymore that the speed of his passage tumbled his sandwich castle. A single wedge fell off the tray altogether, plopping into the great silence of the kitchen like the blast of an atomic bomb. Two teenage boy's heads poked around the doorjamb, one tousle-haired, one crewcut. The brothers exchanged awed looks with each other, then locked eyes with their respective mothers. Clare just pointed numbly at Vida, who stood frozen in shock, her wand-arm still raised toward the doorway.

"Mom?" Sam gulped. "What'd you _do?_" Trip, long since used to magic itself with his sorceress mother, had taken to examining the doorjamb. Vida's mistake was a simple one, but profound in its revelations. When she'd visualized the door opening, she had quite horribly forgotten which _side_ the hinges were on, and the great outrush of long-pent-up power she'd unleashed had basically separated door from frame from hinges, the end result being two completely twisted sets of hardware, one dangling from the lower frame and the other stubbornly hanging on the door by one screw. The door itself, strangely enough, was perfectly fine, suspended upright on the wrong side of the doorway by nothing so much as the air itself. Trip conferred this quietly to Sam, who confirmed it with his outstretched hand.

Initially meeting the resistance of what felt like a wind-tunnel-effect just before the surface of the door, Sam gulped and pushed through the airstream to the door itself. Suddenly, the flowing air that had been holding the door upright started swirling around _him_ instead, and he found himself engulfed in a micro-tornado. He vaguely realized his mother and brothers were all crying out to him, but all he could really pay attention to was the air flowing up, down, around, and seemingly _through_ him in a glorious cascade of sensation.

Just then, the poor innocent door, no longer supported by the wind that was now too involved with its new playmate, promptly fell on his head.


	2. Water

_**M. Y. S. T. I. C.**_

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:**_ A J_**  
**

**Disclaimer:** I own neither W.i.t.c.h. nor the Power Rangers. I can claim creatorship for the original characters of Mallory, Chloe, Ignatius, Kyle, Martin, Cordelia, Yvonne, Trip, Arthur, Sampson, and Tobias as well as the plot.

'Water'

Mallory Olsen was sitting in her best friend Chloe Hale's bedroom, straddling the pleather stool in the corner by Chloe's drafting table. Chloe was sprawled on her stomach on her bed, a huge four-poster monster done up in a startling pink and lime two-tone. Their second oldest friend, Cordelia Brown, was lounging on the well-cushioned cedar chest at the foot of the bed, digging a last spoonful of ice cream out of her pint container of 'banana-nut bonanza'.

"Gods," she moaned in visceral pleasure, letting the last biteful melt slowly on her tongue. Her platinum blonde hair glittered faintly in the soft sunlight shining through Chloe's 'Pixie Princess' curtains. "If we could just get bananas to grow in Meridian, ya know?" The other two girls just giggled.

"Yeah, Dee, but then you'd never have a reason to visit again, would you?" Chloe retorted, her grin still showing her preferred berry sherbet, a deep purple color stain prominent on her teeth. "But then you'd have to import freezer technology, too. Not to mention all the boys you like at school …" This got the three of them laughing, as Cordelia Vialla Brown, Dee to her friends, was an incorrigible flirt. Chloe thought it was the fact that Dee never had to worry about living with a bad choice in boyfriends; if any of the young romeo's got too fresh, Dee could just use her newly-maturing telepathy to make them forget about her completely. Mallory had to add that it was possible that having the two of them as friends certainly didn't hurt; when the two most popular girls in school were on your side, people hassled you at their own risk.

Mallory ran her hands through her auburn hair, feeling her 'killer chocolate combo' slowly disperse reenergizing carbs and relaxing chemicals into her system. Looking at her blonde friends, she let her mind wander back to her morning e-mailbox surprise, which she hadn't gotten to share with the others yet. Her long-time pen pal, Yvonne, was finally going to visit for the first couple weeks of summer vacation. So instead of joining into the usual boy-bashing banter that was commencing, her usually orderly mind found itself wandering back to when she'd first made Yvonne's acquaintance four years ago.

Mystic

Just after her tenth birthday, her mother Will had decided to get something new for her father for _his_ birthday, which was less than a month later. Since the Olsens were actually reasonably well off, (mom was an expert electrician and her dad, Matt, was frontman for the popular local rock band Cobalt Blue,) an extra vehicle had seemed like the perfect thing. Will spent a week agonizing over just what to get Matt, when young Mallory, who'd spent many a night after her new later bedtime hatching this plan with her mom, had been flipping through the cable channels and had seen _the solution._

The 'Gear Channel' had been running a marathon of one of the many Motorcycle Mania shows, and had just started the 13th episode of something appropriately titled 'Motor/Magic'. The build in the episode had been made for a Halloween charity gala and had been all spiderwebs and orange and black flames with a Jack-o'-lantern headlight, and as soon as she saw it, Mallory _knew_ they had to get her dad a motorcycle. Getting her mom's attention for the idea was easy; Will seemed to already have been aware of her program choice before Mallory even called out for her.

After watching the rest of the episode for the name of the garage, which also turned out to be 'Motor/Magic', and finding the website for ordering custom bikes built, Will and Mallory sat down and tried to design the perfect motorcycle for their favorite rock star. After a lot of brainstorming, a few broken pencils from Mallory's brand-new 100-color box, and just the _tiniest_ bit of help from her famous-artist aunt Hay Lin (OK, a _lot_ of help,) they'd submitted their personalized, ultimate desired design to the company.

The next morning, a very harried young woman had given them a call on their new videophone. Maddie Russell had been overjoyed with their online order; the Olsen's had been the first customer to actually use the 'design your own bike' feature she'd put on the website. She was just a little curious as to whether they were sure they wanted _ALL_ the features they'd selected. With a grin, Maddie added that she'd seen the time they'd logged in their final design: 3:17 a.m. With an answering smirk, Will told her that yes, the design was a little bizarre, but it was for a musician, so the more attention it got, the better. Maddie asked a few more quick questions, mostly about the bike's actual desired mechanics, to which Will gave concise, well informed answers, which seemed to be a pleasant surprise.

While the two women's conversation started gravitating into the financial part of the transaction, Mallory, who'd learned that the young woman talking to her mom was also the maker of the show as well as the wife of the star, Nick Russell, was busy looking past Maddison and checking out the shop itself. That's when she got her next great surprise! Wandering through the shop in the background was a young dark-haired girl about Mallory's age, apparently picking up tools and cleaning up the assorted flotsam that accumulated in the busy garage.

Before she could stop herself, she had blurted out "Hey! Who're you? Do you work on the show?" Her mom had whirled on her, completely mortified that she'd interrupted the 'adult' part of the phone call, but Maddie had just grinned, and turned and called out to the young girl.

"Yvie, come say hi to our newest customers." Motioning the rail-thin child next to her, she'd beamed proudly and said, "Will and Mallory Olsen, meet my daughter, Yvonne Russell."

Yvonne had done a complete double-take at their names. "O-Olsen, like _MATT Olsen? From Cobalt BLUE?!"_ Her following shriek of fan fever left no doubt who her favorite rock band of the moment was. The two moms had beaten hasty retreats from the suddenly frenetic conversation the pair of ten-year-old girls had launched into. A few quiet signs, and a hurried lip-reading conferral, and the young women each just went to their computers and finished their motorcycle business online while the girls became new best friends.

Mystic

Mallory was abruptly brought back to the present by Chloe and Cordelia, each of who'd grabbed one of her elbows and hoisted her off the stool and started hauling her bodily out the door. "Hey! What gives? Give a girl a second to get mobilized under her own power, already!"

"No can do, Mal, or we're gonna be late to meet this pen pal of yours," Chloe said from her left side, her golden hair almost blinding Mallory on the backswing.

"Nope, no girl that can so thoroughly steal your attention away from our weekly 'Heatherfield Hottie Revue' gets to get off that light." Cordelia answered from Mal's right. As the three girls got out the door of Chloe's family's apartment, they heard a distinct buzzing sound coming from the unit across the hall. "See? Betcha the next round of ice cream that's mystery girl, ringing to be let in."

"Hey! HEY!" Mallory finally dug her feet into the deeper carpet in the hallway and brought them to a jerky halt. "How did you two know Yvonne was coming? I haven't even got to tell you guys about her e-mail this morning."

"Simple," Cordelia said. "You still think too loud!" she added with a grin. "We've known since you crossed the hall. Now come on and answer the buzzer and invite her up! The suspense is killing us!" Chloe nodded eagerly from where she was unlocking Mallory's apartment door. The two had had keys for each other's places ever since the Olsens had moved into the complex; their moms were childhood friends of such enduring power, the girls had been brought up to call each other's mothers 'aunt'.

Rushing inside the barely-opened door, Mallory pressed the intercom button for the front gate. "…ome on, Mal, answer already, will ya, I really, REALLY hafta PEE, here …" burst forth from the speaker. The two blonde girls both started laughing. Mallory just gave them hard glares and shushing motions.

"Yvonne, is that you? Sorry, had to run across the hall to commit a _double homicide,_ no big, I'll be right down." She let go of the button, threw scathing looks at the C-girls, and pelted back out the door and down the two flights of stairs to the ground floor and the entrance to the complex. Flinging the door open, she was surprised to see Maddison, Yvonne, _and_ Nick Russell all standing in the vestibule, and doing the 'potty dance', to boot.

Choking down her questions, Mallory just pointed to the lavatories, which waited just off the foyer that led to the complex' pool out back. Maddison was the first one back out, and she hugged the bewildered young girl in thanks. By the time Nick and Yvonne made their (re-) appearances, Cordelia and Chloe had managed to catch up with Mallory.

Yvonne slugged her father in the arm. "Four hours on a motorcycle! No rest stops! No 'You'd better go before we leave, Yvie!'" With each addition, the young Hispanic girl hit him again, and apparently, harder each time too. By the time she was finished, he was wincing and looking at Maddison for safety.

She just gave him a simperingly sweet smile. "It's only the truth, light of mine," she sighed, and without warning punched his other arm. He yelped, and beat a hasty retreat to the parking lot where the two coolest choppers the girls had ever seen rested. Chloe and Cordelia traded envious looks, then rounded on Mallory and Yvonne.

"_So_ …" Dee began. Mallory cleared her throat.

"Yvonne, these are my friends, cousins and neighbors, Cordelia Brown and Chloe Hale. C and C, this is my pen pal, Yvonne Russell. Oh, and her mom, Maddison, and her dad, Nick." Mallory cringed inwardly, so wanting to have done that afternoon differently.

"NO way. Your dad's THAT Nick Russell? The Nick who built the Cobalt Dream for Mal's dad?" Chloe practically gushed.

Yvonne just shared a grin with Mallory, apparently remembering how they'd first met, too.

"Well yeah, that's the guy, all right. And believe you me, that build brought in more business than any of the others before or since. Course, it doesn't hurt that he drives it up on stage at each show now, either, huh, mom?" Yvonne sent a glance back at her mother, who was just grinning away at the four of them. "What?"

"It's just great to see you're going to have more than one reason to want to stay here, honey. God forbid you should have any other girlfriends back home, but I think you've been spending a little _too_ much time around the garage, lately." Maddison gave her daughter a significant look.

"What, can I help it if dad made cycles cool again and all the cute guys hang around checking out our stock?" Yvonne retorted, the epitome of affronted teenager, like her mother was blaming her for having good taste. That exchange just made the other three girls laugh.

"Don't worry, Missus Russell, but I think we can manage to find something to take her mind off her troubles at home, right, girls?" Chloe looped an arm around the new girl conspiratorially. "There's always the mall, after all."

"What about the mall?" Nick Russell asked, walking back up to the five young women with two duffel bags. He handed one to Yvonne and the other to Mallory, then said "Be right back with the others." Mallory hefted the duffel over her left shoulder, and led the others back down the hall to the elevator, where they waited for Nick. After several minutes, the three Heatherfield girls were starting to fidget from their ice cream sugar rush, and Maddie and Yvonne had doffed their leather riding jackets from the heat. Nick finally reappeared, his own jacket apparently left behind on his cycle, as his well-muscled frame, clad in a skintight red tank-top with leather pants and boots, was straining down the aisle with a hiker's pack strapped to his back and what appeared to be an old _steamer trunk_ rolling slowly behind him. At the murderous glare he cast in Yvonne's direction, her mother whirled back to face her.

"Yvie Ariel Russell, what on _Earth_ possessed you to pack _THAT?_" The other three girls all giggled at this, while simultaneously dying inside from envy of Maddison in appreciation of Nick, and casting wondering glances back and forth trying to silently figure out _where_ the Russells had kept _that_ on the motorcycles.

"Alright, miss 'I can pack my own bags, you don't need to hover,'" Nick growled. "You know this is just a two-week stay, right? What do you have crammed into this thing, your bedroom _furniture?"_ Stopping before the elevator, Nick snatched the duffel from his daughter's arms, handed it to Maddie, and slapped the tow-handle for the steamer trunk into Yvonne's slack grip. "Well, come on, someone press the up button already, so we can unload all of her royal highness' matched luggage and hit the road before dark."

Chloe took charge of the elevator problem, which opened right away, and they rode back up to the third floor in the much-subdued car. Once there, Mallory sent Chloe and Cordelia ahead to open all the doors in their way as the four laden people trudged down to the Olsens' apartment. Hurrying inside, Mallory made a beeline straight for her room, where she tossed the first duffel on her bed, and waved Nick and Maddie to follow suit with their burdens. As she turned to point out her only empty corner for Yvonne to tow the trunk towards, however, the three found that she'd stopped halfway through the living room, and was staring in awe at the 'Matt Olsen Wall of Guitars'.

"You should warn your dad as fast as possible what he's got on his hands," Maddison said with a chuckle. "There are still stalker laws on the books as far as I know, but hopefully she can manage to contain her fandom to a civilized level for her stay here."

Yvonne, hearing this, just whined "Moth_ER_," in frustration. The other three teens giggled.

"That's okay, Maddison. Dad's used to having his adoring public underfoot. After all, Mom and I are his biggest fans. It's when he _doesn't_ get attention twenty-four seven that we have to start worrying about his ego." Mallory swept back out to the spot where Yvie was spellbound, and leaned over the steamer trunk to wave a hand in front of her eyes. Yvonne blinked with a start, and grinned sheepishly at Mal.

"So, are these _all his?"_ Yvonne started walking towards the back of the room, where an X-shaped red electric guitar hung all alone in a set of hooks, while all the other six guitars were encased in Lucite, with little placards affixed to the cases.

"Well, all except for that tiger-striped one in the middle. That used to belong to their second guitarist, my uncle Eric Lindon. Normally, he played saxophone, but he was learning guitar too, before he died." Mallory's delivery was so dry and matter-of-fact, Maddison and Nick looked askance at her for a second. When she noticed their concern, she just looked at her shoes for a second, and said quietly "I, well, we," and she waved an arm in Chloe and Cordelia's direction. "We were only, like, five, I think. It was some kind of car accident."

"Wait a minute. Eric Linden, right? In a car accident?" Maddie looked at Nick with a horrified expression and turned back to the girls, meeting her daughter's eyes. "Honey, how old were you when uncle Toby died?"

Yvonne bit her lip, trying to remember her poor record-store uncle, who'd passed away long before she'd managed to form any lasting memories before his tragic … her eyes flew up to meet her mother's, the same terrible realization occurring to all five of them in the room simultaneously.

Cordelia was the first one to voice the sad news. "Uncle Eric and her Uncle Toby both died in the same crash?" Her whole body gave a massive shudder as she sensed the cold fingers of fate crawl up her spine. "Gods, how creepy is that?"

"Toby had left the store to your Uncle Zander in his will, and he and Aunt Vida named their kid after him," Maddie continued, connecting some previously unmentioned dots for Yvonne's sake. She then turned to Mallory and the other two. "This whole thing seems weird, I know. But maybe you girls meeting and becoming friends is something I can't help but think would have made the two of them happy. So let's just 'ahem' leave that particular bit of news be for now, shall we?" Her pained expression was all the excuse the girls needed to let the macabre topic drop. Nick took his wife's hand and gave it a sympathetic squeeze.

"So, Yvie, what's in the trunk, anyway?" Chloe asked, desperate to fill the awkward silence that followed. Yvonne grinned at the golden-haired girl in thanks for the change in subject, and popped the latches on the side of the trunk. The steamer pushed open to reveal a securely-wedged, disassembled bike on one side, and a stack of plastic-wrapped dresses with a guitar case peeking out from between them on the other.

Nick glowered at his daughter. "_THAT"S_ why this thing was so heavy? You brought your _bike?"_ He threw his hands up and walked out towards the kitchenette area of the loft, grumbling dire things that boded no good for Yvie. Mallory and the others just exchanged looks and grinned at Yvonne as one.

"You realize what this means, Yvie, my forward-thinking new friend?" Chloe deadpanned. "This town, and more importantly, the _mall,_ is _OURS!"_ The other girls grinned along with her, sharing teenage looks that turned almost feral as Nick's muttered imprecations became louder. Maddison just rolled her eyes.

"Just remember, sweetie, whatever you buy still has to fit into your luggage to get back _home_, okay?" she admonished. She was about to add something else, when a sudden _THUNK_ from the direction of the kitchen, followed by loud cursing and the sound of a fountain, made everyone go running pell-mell towards the sounds.

Nick had simply been trying to get a drink of water, when the whole faucet had detached from the sink on him, and now water was geysering up and all over the room. As Mallory scampered forward to rescue the appliances that were lined up on one side of the sink, and Chloe grabbed the phone and frantically dialed the office downstairs, chanting "Call the super, call the super," under her breath, Nick was trying to get his hand over the gushing stream to at least minimize the damage.

Maddie frantically started digging in her many pockets, trying to remember where she'd put her Mystic Wand, knowing her affinity for water was probably their only chance at that moment. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw her daughter Yvie glide almost trancelike towards the sink, and with the gentlest wave of her hand, and the whispered intonation "_Stop_," Yvonne literally froze the spraying water in midair.

The others just gaped, gathering around Yvie as she unhurriedly plunked the faucet assembly back on top of the exposed pipe, and hand-tightened the main nut back down. Turning to Chloe, she asked, "Did you get through yet? 'Cause that won't hold forever." Seeing the slack-jawed looks of all the others, she took a hurried step back.

"What?" was all she managed to say, before chaos erupted.


	3. Fire

M.Y.S.T.I.C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

By: A J

**Disclaimer:** I own neither W.i.t.c.h. nor the Power Rangers. I can claim creatorship for the original characters of Mallory, Chloe, Ignatius, Kyle, Martin, Cordelia, Yvonne, Trip, Arthur, Sampson, Tobias, Dave, Mark, Rick, Simon, Sylvester, Latanya, Delilah, Rhyssa, Esteban, Alonzo, Rona, Louis, and Steve, as well as the plot.

'Fire'

The game was all tied up; three-on-three, shirts versus skins, one basket to take it all home. Neither side would give in without a fight, and the strain was starting to show. Skins currently had possession, and were drilling back down through the center from half-court.

"Damn, Dave, work that side more!"

"I am! Guard yours! These guys pass more than the Globetrotters!"

"Iggy! Iggy, I'm open!"

"Here it comes, Simon!"

"HA! Psyche! You _were_ open, sucker!" Dave crowed as he intercepted the ball between 'skins', and rushed the basket. "This one's for you, Latanya! Who's your man now, baby?" The young black man drove around Simon, and made a perfect lay-up. Landing on the other side of the basket, Dave did a victory dance, crying out, "Yeah! Twenty-one! And the crowd goes wild!"

Since 'the crowd' consisted of Latanya and her two best friends, and the three young ladies were paying scant attention, if any, to the ball game to begin with, at least insofar as caring which team had won anyway, this statement was totally anticlimactic. That didn't stop Dave's teammates from sitting on the benches near the three girls and trying to engage them in hopeful conversation.

While Iggy, Simon, and Simon's brother Sylvester were rinsing off with their half-finished bottled waters, Delilah Heptavia was wrinkling her Goth nose at the pervasive smell of athletic endeavor wafting from the two 'shirts'. "Augh! Please! Either go rinse off like the others, or sit downwind, already!" Her bleach-blonde sister Rhyssa nodded her head in agreement, and pinched her nose.

Dave Oliver sauntered over to Iggy Cook and offered his hand. "Hey, man, great hustle out there. If you play that well come fall, I'm sure we can talk coach Z into letting you into one of the freshman slots." Iggy clasped forearms with Dave, grinning all the while.

Tall for his age, Iggy was a basketball prodigy, taking after his uncle Peter Cook of the Houston Comets. He was also a scholastic whiz like his mother, Taranee. As far as she and her husband Nigel were concerned, they had the perfect son. Whenever he heard this, Iggy would just smile and inevitably add that he'd also inherited Taranee's eyes, which meant he was so nearsighted he was almost blind without his wire-framed glasses.

"You gonna be at the barbeque coming up? Or're you tryin' to think of a way out, too?" Iggy asked Dave, who just rolled his eyes and his shoulders.

"Jeez, you'd think firefighters would be the _last_ people to head to a public park and start a bonfire, huh?" he retorted. The two young men chuckled together, which shortly changed to full-bellied laughs when Dave's teammates Rick and Mark came screaming past them. Rhyssa and the other girls weren't far behind in pursuit, armed with water bottles from Mark's cooler.

As the five were heading out through the gate in the chain-link fence which circled the ball courts, Rhyssa let fly with the empty bottle in her left hand. Rick saw it coming out of the corner of his eye, and ducked at the last second, even as he was running around the doorway.

The bottle landed on the hood of a navy blue Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight, splashing the dregs of its contents up the windshield. A head popped out of each side window; both men were Hispanic, with green do-rags over their hair and coiled-snake tattoos below their left eyes.

"HEY!" the driver started yelling. "What chu doin', disrespectin' my car like that, Chica?"

Rhyssa skidded to a halt just inside the fence line, as did the other four. Dave, Iggy, and the Roberts brothers came up to see what was going on.

"Oh, no," Dave hissed, pointing out the gang colors to Iggy surreptitiously. "They're Couatls."

"Ah, man," Iggy groaned. "Where's Great-Uncle Tom when you need 'im?"

The goateed passenger was hanging halfway out of the window on his side of the car, groping after the offending bottle. As soon as he had a hold on it, he snaked back upright, and then looked at the driver. "What should we do to them, Stebe?"

Esteban Sanchez, wheelman extraordinaire', was proud of his classic car, having restored it himself after finding it rusting away in the town dump. So he wasn't about to let some _kids_ get away with throwing trash on his ride. Looking from the offending water bottle to the not-at-_all_ offending thrower, he let the fantasy of taking his revenge out on her in trade briefly play through his mind, and then reluctantly shook the idea out. "Gimme that." Grabbing the bottle from his friend, he gave all the kids an appraising look. Seeing most of them were still cowering inside the chain-link fence, his attention was drawn to the _mocoso_ who'd started the whole encounter by ducking.

Poor Rick was frozen in suspense, waiting for the inevitable retaliation from the two hoodlums. When the driver grinned maliciously and pulled his arm back, bottle in hand, Rick braced himself for anything.

"I think this was gonna be _yours, muchacho._" Esteban wound up like a star baseball pitcher and let fly with the empty bottle, his throw aimed at Rick's head. Even as Rick tensed, ready to duck, the bottle was snatched out of mid-air. Looking back up at the sound of hollow plastic hitting flesh and _not_ feeling an impact, Rick was shocked to see Iggy standing in front of him, the bottle clutched in his hand.

"Well, well. Looka what we got here, Lon. A gen-u-ine _hero_." Esteban heckled. His goateed passenger hooted in derisive laughter.

Iggy waved Rick back through to the others as unobtrusively as he could. Rick just stood there, shaking. Turning his head just enough he could lock eyes with Rick while still being able to see the car (and its occupants) in his peripheral vision, Iggy nodded towards the others, and hissed to Rick. "Run."

Rick Sterling didn't need to be told twice. Backing up through the fence, he watched as Iggy squared off with the two Couatls. When he bumped into Dave, who was forcing his way forward through their little group to help Iggy, one look at Dave's face told Rick and the others how bad this could get.

"Dave, man, I think we should get outta here." Mark Clemens muttered from the back of the group. A fellow bookworm with Iggy, Mark was only too used to the bullied life of nerd-dom. He saw no reason to go _looking_ for extra trouble. He edged his gangly frame along the fence until he could see through the other exit across the basketball court. Knowing he was no use in a fight, and calling upon his familiarity with the area, he started planning a possible escape route for himself and his friends.

"$#!+, Mark, don't you have any backbone in that stick-figure frame of yours?" Rhyssa jibed, noticing his retreat.

"Yeah, Rhys, firmly attached to my other parts, which is right where I'd like to keep it, y'know?" He returned, stung by her words. "What about you? I don't think these guys are gonna let you get away given half a chance, since it's _your_ bad aim that got us into this …"

"_Enough, you two,_" Delilah murmured furiously. "_Either we stay or we go; Group decision. Simon? Dave?"_

Iggy, his senses hypersensitive with adrenaline, heard the exchange behind him. "Dave, get the others out of here, man. I got this."

Dave took a step closer to Iggy, his hand half-raised to grab his friend's arm and yank him back to the relative safety of the ball court. "Iggy ...?" he started.

Iggy whirled his head around towards Dave and screamed "_GO!"_ Then he turned back, whipped the bottle back at the two Latinos in the Olds, and pelted down the alleyway, headed downtown … _toward_ Couatl territory. When asked later about that final missive from his fellow teen, David Oliver Junior would _swear_ he saw flames flickering in Iggy's eyes.

All the returning projectile did was heighten the irritation Esteban already had built up. After a steady stream of expletives uttered at Dave and the others, he hauled himself back in through his window and started the car. Without waiting for his _compadre_ to buckle up, he tore off after Iggy, swearing bloody revenge for the_ delincuente juvenil_ who'd dared to thwart him.

Mystic

Iggy slid around a corner and jolted to a stop. _'&__/ construction. Another dead end!'_ Hearing the Olds' engine roaring around the corner just behind him, he realized his run was finished. He'd led them a merry chase, at least; keeping just a turn ahead of them for well over twenty minutes and covering almost a dozen blocks. He felt satisfaction in getting as far as he had. Now, unfortunately, he knew he was about to pay for his heroism, and pay BIG.

Meanwhile, Dave and the others had fought through afternoon traffic the five blocks to the Heatherfield Police Station. They arrived just as Chief Thomas Lair was exiting, headed to the motor pool to reacquaint himself with his own car and home after a day of saving everybody else from themselves.

"Uncle Tom! Uncle TOM!" Dave yelled, working to get his attention by sheer volume. Tom Lair paused on the bottom step of the stationhouse, watching the half-dozen teens run towards him, all wildly waving. When they'd finally come to a stop before him, each was so out of breath they couldn't muster the energy for their message.

Finally sucking in a deep lungful of air, Sylvester forced himself upright and blurted out, "Chief Lair! It's Iggy! We were at the bee-ball court, and a couple Couatls started some sh … trouble, and Iggy drew 'em off running! They went that way!" He pointed roughly towards the river at the south end of town, known Couatl territory.

"Jeez, kids! What next taming wild animals in the park?" Tom delivered over his shoulder as he spun and ran back up the steps and into the Police Station. Scanning the crowd, he located his two best running officers and a decent driver. "Chalmers! Roberts! Get your track shoes on! Giuseppe, go warm up that monster of yours; we've got a potential vic in Couatl area, and I don't intend to end today with a homicide house call!" _'Especially this house!'_ he added to himself.

Dashing back out to the curb with the other officers in tow, he stopped in front of the kids long enough to say, "Alright, Sylvester! Tell them what you told me, while I get another car!" He scooted around to the garage, all along blessing his wife Anna for pushing that damned rabbit food on him all these years; he'd finally made some headway in the Battle of the Bulge. Climbing _back_ into his department patrol car, he turned the engine over and sped out to the street, just in time to see Steve Roberts reading the riot act to his sons for even _thinking_ of getting mixed up with the Couatls.

Ever since the Latino gang had been chased out of L.A. by rivals, they'd steadily worked their way east through towns trying to establish a new territory, but every city before now had had gangs of their own, already embroiled in the same rivalries and nastiness that was their wont. When the Couatls had reached Heatherfield a year ago, it had seemed like the Promised Land, with a nearly-nonexistent police force and no enemy gangs present. Tom Lair shuddered, remembering the recruiting drive he'd pushed to double Heatherfield's police force, including luring several officers from towns known to have seen the Couatls in action, like Briarwood. He counted himself lucky it had taken until now before someone close to him was dragged into this.

"Alright, Chalmers, you're with me. Roberts, go with Giuseppe. As soon as any of you spots Iggy, we pick 'im up and return here. _No heroics, _is that clear? C'mon, move out!"

As Chief Lair was issuing his orders, the teens were gawking at the Heatherfield PD high-pursuit vehicle. Confiscated during a high-profile drug bust a few years before, the police-retrofitted late-model Mustang Cobra was more than a match for anything on the road. The driver was Officer Louis Giuseppe, former Indy and stock-car racer, a total adrenaline junkie who'd come all the way from Los Angeles in pursuit if the Couatls, who numbered no end of car experts and dangerous drivers of their own.

Dave nudged Simon, and the two jumped forward, climbing into the police cars along with the officers at the last second. Simon had hopped on board with his dad, and Giuseppe the speed demon was already in gear and tearing asphalt as the door closed behind them. When Dave clambered into the back seat of Chief Lair's cruiser, Tom nearly took his head off.

"Jaysus, David! Get back outta this car right now!" he roared, whipping around and almost throttling himself in his seatbelt. Officer Rona Chalmers wisely kept her opinion out of it.

"C'mon Uncle Tom, I feel bad enough runnin' out on Iggy in the first place, even if he told us to! I'm not gonna sit back and not help you find him!" Dave countered, busy with his own seatbelt.

Realizing they were losing time to the argument, Tom just raised his eyes heavenward. "Alright, already! But you make _one_ move outta that back seat and I'll cuff you myself for interfering with police business!" Slamming the cruiser into drive, he tore off toward the river district, Dave yelling directions to where he thought Iggy would have run.

The other kids were left standing on the curb before the Police Station, watching their friends and the officers rush to Iggy's (hopeful) rescue. Then Latanya spoke up. "Hey … where did we lose Rhyssa?"

Sylvester did a quick headcount. Man, their little group was shrinking fast! Iggy was running, Dave and Simon were on the chase, now Rhyssa'd turned up gone. Struggling to remember when he had seen her last, he realized she hadn't been with them since leaving the basketball courts. He said as much to the others, and added, "I just hope she's not trying to save Iggy by herself."

"I wouldn't put it past her," Delilah answered. "But you never know. My sis can take care of herself. Hey, come on guys. We've gotta let Iggy's mom know about this, and we've got the perfect means right here." She sprinted into the police station and straight to the dispatch officer.

Mystic

Esteban and Alonzo climbed out of the Olds, effectively blocking the dead-end alleyway. Iggy was squatting behind a dumpster, keeping track of the two men by their elongated shadows, which streamed past him in the afternoon light.

"I know I saw him duck in here, man. Three Street's too long for us to miss him on it, and we were right on his tail after that last corner." Alonzo was practically gloating. Esteban just gave him a withering glance.

"'Course he's in here," he replied. "Now pipe down. Just watch for that red shirt he had on." Hearing this, Iggy cursed silently, wishing he'd picked something else out of his closet besides his uncle's old Comets jersey. He'd slid it on after running the first few blocks, hoping to lose them by changing his look the expedient way. Unfortunately, the passenger with 'Stebe' had caught a glimpse of his telltale dreadlocks as they'd rounded the next corner.

Just as he was bracing himself for a mad dash around the dumpster towards a (dubiously) better safe spot, a quiet voice hissed right by his ear, so low he almost missed it.

"_Sstay put. Help iz on itss way."_

A loud clatter abruptly sounded from across the alleyway behind another dumpster, making the two gang members whirl away from Iggy's hiding place. There was a loud _'rouwll'_ and '_khssss'_, followed by a small '_thud-ump' _as a large animal jumped on top of the trash bin across the alley.

"Jeez, Alonzo! Would you get a load of the size of that _gato!_" Esteban uttered in awe, taking in the sight of an enormous flamepoint Siamese, which was mountain-lion in proportions.

"_Hola_ Mary, mother of God …" his goateed companion muttered in amazement. "Makes you wonder what their feeding the _ratas _..."

Mystic

Less than a block away, Maurice the _maitre d'_ was showing two very special guests to their customary reserved table at _Chez Chic._ IT entrepreneur Martin Tubbs and his Firefighter ex-wife Irma Lair were celebrating their tenth Un-anniversary: an annual dinner celebrating their _last_ meal together as Husband and Wife. Amicably separated, they'd been meeting at the same table at that restaurant every year, just to stay in touch and stay friends. Like the setting, Maurice had become a part of the ritual; serving the last seven of the ten meals to them. Just then, he was bringing out their breadbasket, complete with a surprise from the pastry chef: a pair of cupcakes slathered in black icing with little candy '10 yrs' on top.

"You two are the friendliest _divorce'_ I have ever met. You _must_ tell me your secret." Maurice interjected while unfurling Irma's napkin for her with a practiced snap. She mouthed a thank you, while she and Martin were 'aah'-ing over the confectionary gifts.

"Simple," Martin began, already unwrapping one of the cupcakes. "We still love each other." He took a huge bite, his eyes crinkling to slits in pleasure behind his coke-bottle glasses. Still chewing, he grinned and added, "Isn't that right my little hot-cross-bun?"

Irma just rolled her eyes and grinned right back. "Yeah, Martin. We just couldn't live under the same roof, at the same time, in the same bed …"

"Ah come on, Irma, you're not still gonna hold that one against me, are ya?" He'd finished demolishing the cupcake, and was now staring straight at her in humiliated anguish. "I mean, how come you never even let me prove to you it was all just a learning experience?"

"Martin. Really. A prototype electronic sex-doll. How was that supposed to be a learning experience?" She flattened the napkin Maurice had unfurled for her in her lap, and grabbed hold of the menu he'd just brought to their table. She looked back at Martin, awaiting his answer. She'd never dared ask him about this in a civil conversation, usually just bringing it out as the ultimate punchline in a series of bad divorce jokes she regularly spun out at parties with the other girls. Here was her chance at the _real_ truth. Finally.

"Well, when the guys in our lab actually programmed it, they said they'd left the sensitivity meters at, like, half-measure. So I figured, if I could learn how to get a machine running at sub-par to a real, 'ahem,' _OH_," and here, he actually blushed. "Then I would be, like, _super-_hubby material for you, my sweet lollipop." He grinned sheepishly, setting his hands over hers where they lay on top of the forgotten menu.

Irma locked eyes with Martin over the table, well aware her dumbfounded emotions were gonna take a while with _that_ bombshell. She became aware that the water in her glass was acting up. In fact, the water_ in every glass in the restaurant _was now slowly roiling out of its containers and seeping into the no-doubt expensive linen on the tables all around them. In order to stave off an aquatic disaster of her own making, she retreated behind her habitual sarcastic wit.

"Martin, you _do_ know I'm batting for the other team now, right?" She looked up at a just-returning Maurice, saw the flustered look on his face at overhearing her last statement, and was just about to tell him they were most _definitely_ not ready to order yet, when her Emergency Services pager went off. _'Damn good timing, Alchemy!'_ she thought, digging in her loose dress-trousers pocket for the annoying thing. When she saw the line of directions scrolling across the screen, she almost cried out. _'Or not.'_

Mystic

Taranee Cook-Avery was driving back to the central station house to file another passed inspection for the Heatherfield Fire Department. Today was one of those early summer days where she could actually say she loved her job. The weather had been nice and clear, the traffic (at least where _she'd_ had to drive to) had been light, and the new fire-code inspection they were starting had gone off without as much as a miss-stapled wire.

'_Another safe day in good, old Heath …'_ She never got to complete that thought as her pager went off in its clip on her dash. Slowing down long enough to read the streaming text, she switched gears in her truck and hauled her way through a one-eighty turn, slapping the lights and siren on in the process. _'Damn, please, please, PLEASE let that alert be wrong,'_ she chanted silently to herself.

Mystic

Alonzo was trying to shoo the great cat away from them, but it seemed intent on just watching the two men as they continued searching the alleyway for their elusive quarry.

Iggy meanwhile was slowly, painstakingly, and most importantly _quietly_, trying to back out from around the other side of the dumpster. If he could just get a good running start, he knew he could beat these guys back out of this alley, and lose them in the afternoon foot traffic starting to fill Three Street, which he could now hear clearly over the occasional scrapes and curses engendered by the two Couatls. Just then, the door of the business behind him was opened by a scrawny guy in a stained white chef's coat carrying a whole crate of lettuce that, from the smell alone, should have been compost sometime last week.

"Hey! What're you doing back here?" the young kitchen staffer started to yell, even as Iggy was trying to shush him.

'_Too late,'_ Iggy realized with a groan. At the sound of the young guy's voice, the Couatls had spun around, and had seen Iggy's wild gestures in his vain attempts at silencing.

"Alright,_ mocoso_, it's payback time," the goateed hood started. Spotting an empty wine bottle in the refuse of the alley, he scooped it up and hefted it menacingly. "What chu think, Esteban, poetic justice for him, no?"

"I think yes," Esteban answered, scooping up another bottle from the alley's near-endless supply of discards. Iggy saw his chances of getting out of this scrape unharmed rapidly vanishing just watching the two Latinos count their potential ammo.

The scrawny guy in the doorway, seeing where the showdown in the alleyway was headed, just let out a whimper, dropped his crate of antique vegetables, and hightailed it back inside the restaurant. Hearing the lock turn, Iggy spared a glance at the back door, noticing the name of the place: Chez Chic. Something about the name seemed familiar, but the memory eluded him in the face of his current crisis.

That's when they threw the first bottle at him.

Dancing to stay out of the range of the deadly glass missiles, Iggy grabbed the first thing he spotted to use as a makeshift shield against the toughs; namely, the lettuce crate. Swinging it back and forth haphazardly, he managed to deflect a surprising majority of the flack headed his way. But a risky glimpse at where they were getting their ammunition from, which turned out to be the empties bin for a bar that faced Four Street on the far side of the alley, and Iggy knew he couldn't keep this up forever.

Especially when one of Alonso's lucky throws slammed into his knuckles on the side of the crate, and Esteban kept throwing his short, so they shattered at Iggy's feet and sprayed his legs with alcohol-soaked glass shards. After a second bottle shattered across his left elbow, gouging his arm, he dropped the crate, and started trying instead to do what he'd done back in the basketball court; catching the bottles and returning the favor of broken glass to his involuntary playmates.

This new tactic even worked; for a few precious seconds, _they_ were the ones suddenly on the receiving end of all the damage. Then Esteban upped the ante, and started whipping bottles in twos and threes wildly in Iggy's direction, while all the teen could do was duck and try to swat the worst of the incoming missiles away from himself.

Suddenly, the strangest sensation came over Iggy. As a trio of near-empty bottles soared over his head to crash on the brick wall behind him, the alcohol sprayed around where he was standing started to hiss and steam. A tequila bottle made contact with his left shoulder even as he was ducking under a green whiskey fifth on his right, and he swung out his hands to snatch a pair of pint vodka bottles right out of the air. The minuscule amount of liquor still in each bottle was enough to fuel an unexpected ignition, and abruptly, all the spilled alcohol at Iggy's feet literally vaporized in a sudden _'whoosh'_ of blue and orange flares.

Esteban and Alonzo stopped themselves from throwing anything more Iggy's way. The horrible realization that they were now _literally_ adding more fuel to an unwelcome and very angry fire with no reason to spare them was almost comically obvious to watch wash over their faces. If Iggy had been the sarcastic quipster his Aunt Irma was, or the one-liner king that his cousin Mallory's new boyfriend Trip was, an appropriate verbal scathing would have preceded his sudden turning of the tables on the two gang members. As it was, all he could think to say was a retaliatory comment from one of his favorite old books his mom had gotten him.

"An eye for an eye," he slurred, realizing only then that he was quite probably getting drunk from all the liquor that had found its way into his blood. He threw the first flaming missile into the bin of empty bottles the toughs had been fishing their ammo from. It burst into a miniature mushroom cloud as the flames ignited the alcohol fumes lingering over the bin itself, and then flared up in a veritable cube of flames when the liquor at the bottom ignited. Sparks spewing out of the sudden conflagration lit the puddles of booze the Couatls were standing in and stained with, the result being the two men abruptly doing highly suggestive rain-dances as they tried to scamper out of the flaring puddles while simultaneously trying to climb out of their ignited clothes.

"…And sweets for the sweet," Iggy added, as he turned and made a perfect three-point shot with the other flaming bottle, straight over the dumpster he was still next to and into the open window of Esteban Sanchez' restored classic Oldsmobile Eighty-eight. The sudden leap of flames and acrid outpouring of smoke from inside the car surely meant that some of the artificial-fiber upholstery was _very_ flammable.

Esteban's scream of anguish, whether for his imperiled car or his own burning flesh as he still fought his way out of a flaming pair of jeans, was sweet music to Iggy's ears. Just then, the entire rescue squad appeared: Taranee's truck came roaring into the alley right behind the PD's interceptor, and closely followed by the Chief's own cruiser. At the same time, the door to Chez Chic burst back open in a manner that precluded anyone remembering to _un_lock the door first, to reveal Aunt Irma, armed with a water pitcher and a kitchen fire extinguisher, both of which she promptly emptied onto Iggy's slow-smoldering frame.

Complete confusion reigned supreme in the alleyway briefly, but with two experienced firefighters, one junior apprentice, and a certain 'deputized' scrawny kitchen assistant, the various blazes were contained swiftly. Only when all else was done, the two ruffians had been carted off to the emergency room for their burns with an armed guard, and a tow truck had been called to return the unplated Olds _back_ to the scrapyard, did Taranee turn to her still-steamy son.

"Ignatius Peter Cook, you've got some explaining to do …"


	4. Time

M.Y.S.T.I.C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:**_A J_

**Disclaimer:** I own neither W.i.t.c.h. nor the Power Rangers. I can claim creatorship for the original characters of Mallory, Chloe, Ignatius, Kyle, Martin, Cordelia, Yvonne, Trip, Arthur, Sampson, Tobias, Dave, Mark, Rick, Simon, Sylvester, Latanya, Delilah, Rhyssa, Esteban, Alonzo, Rona, Louis, and Steve, as well as the plot.

Chapter Four

"Time"

When none of the magical measures Clare could think of revived Sam, Vida got Trip's help to load her eldest son into her SUV. Trip stayed up front to help navigate, while Clare un-stowed the rearmost seats for the two youngest. She then clambered into the middle seat to keep a hold on Sam for the ride to Heatherfield's St. Nicholas Hospital. Once there, Clare ran Sam into the ER with Trip's help, while Vida circled almost all the way around the building before finding an open parking space. Hurrying back through to Sam's side with A.J. and Toby in tow, Vida spent her run digging through her ever-full purse for her insurance cards and ID.

_Sam was flying. At first, he was afraid it was just another dream, like when he had gone swordfish chasing with his father, Chip, only to wake up with a bout of indigestion after a bad swordfish steak from the new Japanese restaurant in town. But THIS, this was the real thing. He could TELL. For one thing, what dream could give him wings as glorious as the feathered pinions gracing his shoulders now. Wings he could FEEL, from the minutest twitch of muscle, to the pull of wind eddies flowing between layers of ailerons and down._

_He flexed one shoulder, arching that wing up and in, so he circled slowly to that side, then switched, repeating the process so he swooped back the other way. _'Wow, whaddiya know! Years of watching boring biology class movies DOES pay off!'_ He laughed out loud, listening to the sound carry away for seemingly endless miles across a sky that roiled with great pink-tinged clouds. Looking off to his right, he spotted what appeared to be a castle in the clouds. _'Hmmm. Maybe this is a dream after all. I certainly would have remembered something like THAT making the news …' _Doing a wingover, he flipped and started toward the imposing structure. Dream or no dream, THIS was too cool to pass up._

Going down the corridor from the ER to the hospital's cafeteria, Trip Thorn silently cursed vending companies to a slow death by ever-diminishing profit margins. If the idiots in the soda company expected any customers, they'd restock ALL the machines, not just the ones in the employee lounge. Sorely in need of a caffeine fix, he trudged on. His predicament brought to mind a recent conversation he'd had with his girlfriend, Mallory Olsen.

The two had just started going out after a blind date on St. Valentine's Day. By Easter Break, they'd found the two of them had so much in common, it made their heads spin. The one big difference between them was their soda preferences. Mallory preferred diet colas to the exclusion of almost everything else, while Trip was devoted to Mountain Dew(TM & © Pepsi), along with all of its clones. Hence, their first (and ONLY) real fight as a couple so far had happened recently, while trying to pick a place to go for a quick meal before their Friday night movie. After passing up three normally favored places, they'd settled on a new restaurant neither of them had been to before.

Upon finding out that the restaurant didn't have ANY of the variations of Dew, Trip had been all set to call the place a bust (even after the twelve-minute wait for a table) and just get something ruinous at the cinema. Mallory, after a furious whispered argument, had finally convinced him to just get a REAL meal, with water, for HALF theater prices, and then get a larger Dew at the movie instead. He'd agreed, sulking at the time, but by the end of the evening, he'd thanked her for her reasonable solution, realizing that without her, he'd have spent WAY more for a worse dinner, and ended up that much more miserable, just for the sake of a soft drink.

Kissing him soundly in forgiveness, Mallory told him of the times she'd been stuck choosing between cola companies, and the day she realized that no brand label was worth her misery. Then and there, she'd quit agonizing over it, and as long as she could get ANY diet cola, she counted herself lucky. The two had agreed on lessons well learned, and he'd walked her home, amicable once again.

Bringing his wandering mind back to the present, Trip turned the final corner into the cafeteria. Tracking down the vending corner, he was relieved to see there were no 'out of stock' lights on the Pepsi machine. "Thank the Maker," he muttered in a passable British accent, the old movie line brought to mind by the audio-navigator in his aunt Vida's car. Dialing a Mountain Dew for himself, he got two colas for his mom and aunt, and two fruit punches for his younger sibs. Plunking the last of his change into a snack-o-matic, he snagged three bags of ranch-flavored potato chips and started back towards Emergency.

'Man, this place is bigger than I thought!' _Sam pondered, performing a lazy spiral around the periphery of the cloud-palace. Without any other points of reference, the distant place had taken him longer to reach than he'd originally thought it would, and was much more massive than it had originally appeared. Now, as he completed one lap around what now turned out to be just the topmost parapet of the tallest central building of an immense structure, he caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye._

_On a terrace several dozen feet below him, he spied somebody waving at him. Upon winging lower, he found out that it was a young bald man with a friendly smile in a pale blue ceremonial robe. _ 'Now's a good a time as any to practice landing,' _Sam thought, backwinging and aiming his feet towards the balcony next to the man. With a resounding 'THWUNK', the young aerialist settled feet-first to the ledge. Hastily furling his wings to his back, lest a stray cross-breeze sweep him right back off the terrace, Sam turned to meet this interesting stranger._

"_Greetings, Sampson Rocca. Long have I anticipated the day when I could finally meet you," the bald man began._

'Whoa. Dude knows my name! How weird is that?' _Sam took a half-step back, suddenly unsure of his dream-theory._

_The stranger merely smiled reassuringly, holding up his empty hands in a show of self-deprecation. "How could I not know your name, Sampson. It has been foretold that you and your friends would arise from the flux of history and save us all. I am Himerish, the Oracle of Candracar, and I am here to guide you to your destiny, if you so choose." He held out one hand, halfway between the two of them, and raised one eyebrow in an eloquent wordless question._

_A sudden horrible thought occurred to Sam. The wings, the city in the clouds, the friendly greeter in robes … "Hey, am I, well, DEAD?" He gulped, paling and dreading the answer._

_Himerish just grinned wider, amazed at the human ability to jump to the worst conclusion first. "No, Sampson, not yet. Not for a good long while, fate willing! You are merely having an out-of-body experience, as I believe you humans call it. When you intercepted the energy of the spell your mother cast, you awakened your own mystical potential. Unfortunately, interrupting the spell also brought an oak door into contact with your head, and you were rendered unconscious. While your spirit has been here, allowing us to meet, your body is still on Earth, awaiting your return. Please, walk this way, and I can show you in this viewing pool." He swept one arm to his left, indicating a small birdbath-like marble basin on a pedestal, surrounded by comfortable-looking divans arranged at varied heights so as to make the basin easy to view by any who sat around it, regardless of stature. Sam noticed a gap in the seats, and wondered who didn't need to sit to watch the TV-pool._

_Himerish answered Sam's question the most expedient way possible. Walking around the basin to the open space, he assumed his customary position: floating with his legs crossed under him, hands spread out over the water in the pool. The same pool started roiling with colors, as if someone had added drops of different food coloring to the water. Soon, an image took shape in the basin, and Sam, leaning over, gasped at what he saw._

After Trip returned from his caffeine quest, the two moms had him settle with their other kids in the waiting room while Vida and Clare went back in to see if there was any change in Sam's condition. When they had first arrived, the doctor had told Clare he showed all the signs of being in a light coma; everything was running fine, but there was no one behind the wheel.

Now, Vida looked down at her son. With his body hooked up to so many monitoring devices, if he were to pass gas, it would register in triplicate at the nurses' station. The errant thought made her smile, as it struck her as something Sam would have said himself. _'Come on, sweetie, I know you're there. Don't let some stupid door beat you.'_

_Sam straightened up. "I won't, Mom." Then he did a double-take, quickly flicking back and forth between the pool and the Oracle. "Hey, did I … did we … just … HEAR her thoughts?"_

Just then, the heart monitor registered a slight increase in Sam's pulse, and Vida looked at all the various monitors, trying to find the cause. The duty nurse, seeing her confused hunting, took pity on her. "Missus Rocca, it's an adrenaline spike, that's all. It's actually a good sign. It means his body is trying to speed up its own healing process." The nurse smiled encouragingly.

"_Yes," Himerish supplied, with a smile. "I find it helps to understand what I see better if I listen to what people are THINKING, as well as saying. Now, what else is happening there …" He waved a hand in a circular motion over the basin, and the view in the pool seemed to pull back, like watching a zoom lens in reverse._

Clare was sitting in a visitor's chair in the corner, murmuring wayfinding spells for Sam's spirit, and rubbing her wand slowly back and forth between her hands. When Vida had slowly walked her way back around to that side of the bed, Clare suddenly perked up, an idea flaring in her head. "V, give me your hand."

When Vida complied, after a reluctant glance at what her last spell had wrought on Sam, Clare slid her wand-holding hand so her and Vida's fingers intertwined, and the wand was being wielded by both of them. Aiming it at Sam, Clare cast a sympathetic glance at her friend. "Since it was your wind-magic that started this, V, I thought it would make the wayfinder spell work for Sam better if you cast it. Now, concentrate for your magic."

Vida cast her eyes heavenward, whether in prayer or frustration being moot, and opened herself up to the magic within. When her next exhalation sent a gentle breeze halfway across the room, ruffling Sam's hair and flipping pages on his chart in its bedside clip, Clare met her eyes with a grin, then said, "Now, repeat after me."

"_Whoa," Sam said, FEELING a rush of wind flow past him from his left, which matched where his mom was standing in the pool's image. "Then all those stories of hers and Dad's weren't just stories …"_

"Here lies this body fast asleep,

His soul not ready yet to reap,

To light his way,

To save our day,

Return him now unto his Keep."

_An intense light surrounded Sam, and he looked at the Oracle of Candracar in wonder. "Keep in touch, Him …" he managed to say, before fading out with a rainbow blaze._

"_Sooner than you think, Sampson Rocca, and sooner than either of us wishes." Himerish turned back to the whirling pool of images, and concentrated on the scene unfolding in an alley halfway across Heatherfield from the hospital. Laying a finger to the surface of the water, he concentrated. "Lucain, remember. NO interference; events must unfold as they will."_

_A disembodied voice emanated from the basin. "My apologies, Oracle. I merely wanted a closer look at the moment of Ignatius' manifestation." A flash of shadow near Iggy caught Himerish's eye, but when he looked closer, all he saw was the former Fire Guardian's son._

_"Caution, Lucain. More may be going on there than meets the eye. Keep me informed. I must keep an eye on something else for a moment." He concentrated on the pool for a moment, and the swirling image resolved back to the Heatherfield hospital._

Trip looked up from the waiting-room table where he was playing rummy with his brothers. The nursing staff was acting totally nuts all of a sudden, like one of them had won the lottery and decided to share the prize money. Laying his discard down, he told A.J. it was his turn, and stood to find out what all the commotion was about. Closer to the desk, he could make out snippets of the excited exchange between the staff.

"Can't believe it …" "Just sat right up and said 'Sorry, Mom,'" "The Rocca kid in exam 4 …" "… totally fine, even the swelling's gone!"

Realizing they were talking about his brother, and that his remarkable recovery probably had _something_ to do with his mother the sorceress, Trip went into immediate Damage Control Mode. _'First: Disarm 'em.'_ Getting next to the desk duty clerk, he tugged on his sleeve. "Hey, mister, I heard my brother's name. What's goin' on?"

The clerk, whose nametag read 'Jim', wheeled around to face him instead of the gaggle of nurses. "What's 'at, kid? Couldn't hear ya over these shriekers." He hoisted a thumb back over his shoulder at the other staff.

"I'm Troy Rocca," Trip improvised. "I heard somebody mention my brother, Sam. What're they saying?"

"Sorry, kid; that's patient information. I ain't supposed ta give that out to …" That was as much as he got out, before Clare came streaming out of the emergency section and enveloped her son in a crushing hug.

"Trip! Arthur! Toby! He's all right! He woke up!" She was fairly dancing, swinging around in circles with Trip in tow and leading him back to the two younger boys. Once they were all seated again, she told them in hushed tones what had transpired in the exam room with Sam. Toby and A.J. 'oohed' and 'aahed' in all the right places, until the very end.

"Hey, no way, Aunt Clare. Did my mom _really_ do _magic?"_ Toby's young face showed his skepticism. Clare just beamed at him, too happy to be brought down.

Getting back up now that the crisis was over, Trip found he was overloading with nervous energy. "Hey Mom, I'll be right back. I gotta get some air." He quick-stepped out the emergency doors, needing to just move around for a few minutes. After walking around the perimeter of the emergency lot for a few minutes, he felt some of his tension starting to wane. He was just turning back towards the entrance when the unbelievable happened.

With a screech of tires, a green sedan came thudding over the parking dividers at the edge of the lot. Trip watched in horror as the obviously distressed guy behind the wheel tried correcting his steering, only to put himself on a collision course with Trip instead of the hospital building. Utilizing his freshly-learned Martial-Arts skills Mallory's uncle Caleb had taught him, the youth leaped and rolled out of the floundering car's way. The poor driver, apparently overwrought, slammed his green car into the light-pole that had been behind Trip. The sedan folded itself around the post with a screeching crunch, and the driver's form lay across the horn, which started blaring incessantly.

Trip flipped himself back to his feet. Smelling gasoline, he took a longer look at the car's wrecked front. Sure enough, he spotted a glistening puddle streaming out from the engine block. Rushing forward, Trip Thorn yanked the door open, unbuckled the unconscious driver, and started hauling him away from the car. The two were barely a dozen feet away when a sparking wire ignited the stream of fuel from the engine. To the sound of the rising flicker of flames, Trip pulled the guy with all his might, trying to move faster and farther before …

With a bang, the car blew apart, shredded steel and glass searing its way passed Trip, who'd dived over his charge to try to shield him from the blast. When the first wave of debris was passed him, Trip looked down at his evacuee. The guy was ashen in color, sweating profusely, and his breathing was barely raising his chest. Feeling for a pulse, like he'd learned in phys. ed., Trip was terrified all over again when he couldn't find one.

'_At least I'm in the right place to find help,'_ he found himself thinking, as he stood up and sprinted back into the ER. Not bothering to slow down to let his mother in on the situation, he slalomed around the desk clerk and grabbed the first guy he saw with a lab coat and a nametag. Yelling "Sorry, Doc, no time to be polite," he hauled the bewildered man behind him straight back out to the scene of the fiery catastrophe.

Doctor Ken Nottingham was used to the hectic pace of the emergency room. He was also used to colleagues and EMTs yelling directives and steering each other around when in a hurry. He was even used to being grabbed onto by distraught patients and their family members. But none of this had prepared him for a flurrying whirlwind of yellow energy streaking up and yanking him out to the sight of an apparent car-bombing in their parking lot. That's when he saw the body. His medical training taking over, he immediately knelt down and checked the unconscious man for his condition. What he found made him stand back up, and start yelling hurried directions to the other hospital staff who were just coming out the door to investigate the explosion they'd heard.

"Rose! McGowan! This guy's in cardiac! Let's get him inside, STAT!" Turning back around, he saw the young man in a yellow shirt clearly for the first time. "Are you the one who pulled me out here?" Trip just nodded, and Ken couldn't help but notice how much he jerked in that simple movement. "Was he in that?" Ken waved at the demolished car, now slowly burning itself out in the parking lot. Trip nodded again, and the doctor could swear he heard the kid say something, but couldn't understand him. Ken sidelined that thought for the moment, and patted Trip on the arm.

"You just saved this guy's life. _Twice_. Good job, hero." He hastily removed his hand, shaking it to get the oddest sensation of friction-burn out of his fingers. Jumping out of the way of the stretcher-bearing interns he'd yelled to, he followed the lucky but unconscious new patient back into the ER.

Trip exhaled gustily, watching the beneficiary of his good deeds being wheel towards help. _'I hope the poor guy lives through this,'_ he thought. Just then the slow wail of sirens pierced the late afternoon air, closing on the hospital. Expecting another ambulance, Trip was instead amazed to see a veritable convoy of emergency vehicles streaming into the parking lot. Two ambulances whizzed by him on the way to the ER doors, while a third one screeched into the nearest unhindered space by the remains of the sedan. It was closely followed by the Police Chief's cruiser, the Heatherfield PD's high-pursuit Mustang, and the Fire Inspector's truck, along with a tricked-out Teal Mini Cooper which Trip recognized on sight.

Even with all the vehicles suddenly on hand, Trip wasn't expecting the number of people which crowded out and around the burning wreckage. Recognizing Mallory's aunts Taranee and Irma as the two firefighters who immediately started working on extinguishing the car, Trip tried placing the other six individuals. Not knowing the two police officers by name, he deduced that the older one was the Chief, which meant he was probably Irma's father. The geeky guy standing off to the side and yelling encouragements to the two women was a complete mystery, but the three teenagers hanging back by the cars were no strangers at all.

"Dave! Iggy! Simon! What's going …" He never got to complete the sentence. Still moving faster than he realized, Trip was going past the Interceptor just as Officer Louis Giuseppe climbed out, and right into Trip's path. The two of them crashed off each other, landing on their behinds in the shrapnel-filled lot. Louis did a classic double-take, looking all around the hospital lot between glares at Trip.

"Hey, kid! Where'd you _come_ from?" he demanded. Trip looked at him, dumbfounded.

"Uh, I was standing right there the whole time, Officer. Didn't you see me?" He pointed behind himself towards the clear space he and the man he'd saved had left in the debris spray.

Louis glanced over to where the kid was pointing, but couldn't recall anybody standing on that side of the demolition zone when they pulled up. He was about to say as much, when the other three teens and Chief Lair closed on the two of them.

"Easy there, Lou," Tom began, helping his high-speed officer back up off the ground. "I don't think our young mister Thorn here had anything to do with the car exploding. Am I right, Troy?" Trip got a very temporary reprieve as Dave and Simon helped pull him up from each side, but Tom's attention never wavered.

"Er, no, well, that is , uh, not with the explosion, at least, Chief. I, uh … I pulled the driver out after he hit the pole, that's all …" Trip finished in a hurry. Chief Lair and the other seven all blinked and stared at him for a few tense seconds, then Irma's irrepressible sense of humor settled back into place.

"Well, seems we're just teeming with heroes today, huh, Dad?" she started.

_In the Palace of Candracar, the Oracle walked from his viewing pool to the Room of the Aurameres. As he entered, Tibor was just helping Lucain back into his robes. Lucain turned at Himerish's entrance, his cat-like features lit up with a grin. "Oracle, it was amazing! The boy's personal aura is strong, and when his element manifested, he was a natural! He merely used already-ignited objects to fight back those two ruffians, and he didn't even attack directly; he merely meted out … ah! I believe the Earth humans call it 'poetic justice.'"_

_Tibor nodded his snowy-haired head in agreement. "I was watching as well, Himerish. Young Lucain speaks true; the Cook lad will make a fine Guardian!"_

_The Oracle inclined his head at their advocacy. "I quite agree. But tell me Tibor, why were you watching from here instead of the Audience Chamber with the rest of the Congregation?"_

"_Well, to be honest, Oracle, I wanted to be here for Lucain. I wanted to make sure he didn't have any trouble with the fold from here to Earth or coming back. It WAS his first solo trip since joining the Congregation, and I wanted to be sure, well … I've grown awfully fond of my young apprentice, if you must know …" Lucain smiled in amused appreciation of his mentor's watchfulness, while Tibor hung his head in embarrassment, his swaying beard dipping into the cloudy wisps that flowed at ground level throughout Candracar._

_Himerish smiled indulgently at his friend's loyalty, then found himself being drawn to look at the Aurameres. The five mystical orbs of energy, physical representations of the power of the five elements the Guardians wielded in their duties as protectors of the multiverse, were orbiting slowly around the room. At least they HAD been orbiting slowly; as the trio watched, the five started spiraling closer and closer, till their orbits flew at such speed that even Lucain's sharp eyes couldn't track them completely. Suddenly, lightning arced out from the pink orb of Xin Jing, the Auramere of electricity, quintessence, and the element of the Heart of Candracar. The actinic bolts swarmed in a web of energy, snaring the other four Aurameres and adding their colors to the awesome electrical display. Fiery orange, sea blue, leaf green, and storm-cloud grey lines of energy pulsed rapidly between the Aurameres along with the electric pink discharge for several seconds that seemed to stretch on for hours._

_Then, to the astonishment of the watching Oracle, Historian, and Keeper, a point at the center of the five rapidly circling orbs took on a whole new color, a pale yellow so bright it was painful to behold. In a flash of golden light, a sixth Auramere was forged, a slowly pulsing yellow orb that had a strange sigil floating inside its center, almost like a figure eight that someone had knocked onto its side. The new elemental locus spun slowly in place, then swirled out of its central position to assume an orbit along with the other five Aurameres, which immediately slowed their pace to their usual stately glide around the room. Himerish wasn't the only one to notice the new order the six had assumed._

"_Heart, water, air, the yellow one, fire, then earth," intoned Lucain. "I always wondered if it was just coincidence that the Aurameres assumed the order of the girls names in their team name, or whether something greater than we mere mortals, and immortals," he added, with a grin in Himerish's direction, "was setting things like that in motion."_

_Tibor cleared his throat. "In many ancient cultures, the ouroborus, that sideways double circle in our new yellow charge there, was a sign for infinity, or time. Thoughts, Oracle?"_

_Himerish looked slowly at each Auramere in turn, then swept around to catch both men with a firm but friendly clasp of the shoulders. "Only this: be prepared for ANYTHING. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd better go and brief Yan Lin about these new developments. I'm sure her former pupils will besiege her with questions before long, and it wouldn't do to leave our former Heartkeeper without answers, now would it?" With a final squeeze, Himerish released his two friends, and hurried off to the Audience Chamber to speak of this momentous event to the Congregation, and especially to a certain elderly Chinese woman._


	5. Heart

M. Y. S. T. I. C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I own neither W.i.t.c.h. nor the Power Rangers. I can claim creatorship for the original characters of Mallory, Chloe, Ignatius, Kyle, Martin, Cordelia, Yvonne, Trip, Arthur, Sampson, Tobias, Dave, Mark, Rick, Simon, Sylvester, Latanya, Delilah, Rhyssa, Esteban, Alonzo, Rona, Louis, and Steve, as well as the plot.

Chapter Five

"Heart"

Mitch the superintendent had just left, along with his plumber brother-in-law. Finally finished with the mopping up, the six others were settled in the Olsen's dining nook, along with Mallory's mom. Will had come in along with the plumber, Marcus, since when the super had called, the two contractors had been working on fixtures at the same construction site.

Now safely ensconced in her favorite chair, Will was hearing the _real_ story about the faucet. When it was all over, she looked towards Mallory, Chloe, and Cordelia. "Have you girls told anybody else, yet?" she asked. From her tone, she was more curious than worried about their answer.

The three girls all gave her exasperated looks; Chloe even huffed the bangs from in front of her rolling eyes, a maneuver Will _knew_ the young golden-haired girl had learned from her mother, Cornelia. "Uh, we haven't actually had a chance to get in touch with anyone besides Mister Fitz, Aunt Will. We've been like, kind of busy keeping the plumbing contained, _here._" Chloe managed to convey the maximum amount of conceit in that final word, reminding the red-haired former Guardian of her teammate and neighbor even more.

"Besides, Mom, the person who needs to hear this the most, besides you, is still at her annual dinner with Martin." Will just closed her eyes at this, counting to fourteen as an additional precaution. (She'd learned that counting to ten wasn't _nearly_ enough anymore, and had simply started counting to the age of the person she was talking with at the time; it helped, mostly.)

Maddie traded a quick glance with Nick, who squeezed her hand under the table and gave her a nod. Clearing her throat to gain attention, she stated, "Will, the girls told us about W.i.t.c.h. And before you get all spazzed out," she added, when Will's face started turning an angry scarlet. "We figured you needed to know something about _us. Especially_ in light of what just happened."

Standing up, Nick in tow, she slowly pulled her Mystic Morpher out of her pocket. "You know we're from Briarwood, so I'm actually surprised this never came up in conversation, now that we know about _your_ group." Flipping her phone all the way open, she glanced one more time at Nick, who just grinned, kissed her, then released her hand.

Bracing herself, Maddison Russell aimed her Morpher at the ceiling over her head. "MAGICAL SOURCE; MYSTIC FORCE!" Her voice rang with the long-pent-up authority she'd kept in reserve for Power Ranger emergencies. The great blue spell-glyph, heeding her call, formed over her head. Encircling her on its route downward, the magic worked its transformation of her in a blinding blue flash, and Maddie found herself back in her Aqua Mystic Armor for the first time in almost a decade.

The other five young women let out a collective "Wowww." Maddison was just about to power down, when the weirdest thing happened. _Her helmet rang like a phone for a second!_ Thinking quickly, she reached up for the toggle on the back and switched on her commlink.

"_Maddie? Did I hit the right button? God, it's been years since we've used these things …"_

"Vida, slow down! What's the matter? And why aren't you calling me on your _other_ phone?"

Nick was immediately by her side again, straining to hear Vida's reply through the side of Maddison's helmet. She looked at him out of the corner of her visor, then reached up and took the stifling headgear off, her hand holding the commlink open. _'Huh, talk about conference calling,' _she thought to herself with a grin. Then she realized that Vida was still rambling on from the bottom of her helmet, which, between stylization and acoustics, made it sound like her sister was _literally_ talking to them from out of a fishbowl.

"… _couldn't get a signal inside the hospital, but that's beside the point. This is Ranger business, and I knew you wouldn't ignore _this_ phone."_ Vida's rant continued.

Nick stiffened up beside Maddie. "What's Ranger business, V?"

"_Nick? Great, I got you too. It's about … wait, how'd I get you, too?"_

"Maddie's got us on speaker, V. What's the emergency?" Rolling his eyes, because he could _see_ Vida flipping the phone over as they talked, searching for a nonexistent speaker-button, Nick just smiled down at his wife. "Vida?"

"_Oh, right. Anyway, we're up at the hospital with Sam, 'cause he got hit in the head with a door I broke with Clare's wand, and Trip just saved some guy out in the parking lot from a burning car by going supersonic, and apparently, one of Trip's friends from school is_ fireproof, _and just escaped from a gang-beating."_

"Hey, wait, did you say Trip? Did she say _Trip_?" Mallory practically shouted, effectively drawing everybody's attention.

Maddie looked down at her helmet, which was broadcasting as heavy a silence as had descended on the Olsen's apartment. Holding it up, she tentatively asked, "Vida?"

"_Who was THAT?" _Vida's tinny voice wasthick with accusation. Maddison flushed, realizing that, even though their hometown friends knew the truth, the world at large never learned the real names of the Mystic Force Rangers, and her revelation to the Olsens most definitely broke Udonna's first rule of Rangering: Protect your Secret Identity.

"That was Yvie's net-pal, Mallory. Remember, I was bringing Yvie out to Heatherfield to visit her for a couple weeks now that school is out for the summer." Maddie rushed through that sentence as fast as she could, so they could get back to the real news. "Now what did you say about Sam getting hit by a door? And what are Clare and Trip doing there?"

"_Maddison Russell, do _NOT_ change the subject on me. Why does this Mallory girl care about Trip?"_ Vida was practically fuming through the helmet's speakers. Maddie could only look at the poor girl in question, and found almost everyone else in the room was waiting to hear this as well.

Mallory agonized for a few seconds, then exhaled in defeat. "Because he's my boyfriend."

"_MALLORY!?"_ Will and the C-girls all roared in concert.

"What?" Yvonne cried out at the same time. "You mean this ultra-cute guy you've been gushing about to me online for _months_ is my _cousin?"_

"_Months?"_ Will echoed in shock, which she was (almost) reassured to see mirrored on Chloe and Cordelia's faces. The two were staring gape-mouthed at Mallory as if she'd grown a second head.

"How did you …" "The new guy …" "Right in front of us …" "Your best friends!" The two blonde girls' interjections kept finishing each other's sentences.

"_Uh, should I call back? In, say, five minutes?"_ Vida's tone was more amused than anxious, and Maddie rolled her eyes before answering.

"No, V. Just tell us where you are, and Nick and I will get there as soon as we can." She looked over her shoulder at her husband, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

"_Huh? I thought I already said; Clare and I are at Saint Nicholas in Heatherfield with all four boys. So are a whole bunch of Trip's friends, recouping from a gang fight. And apparently, we've all just had the most _extraordinary _day, here. You guys are in Heatherfield too, right? Tell me where _you_ are, and Clare can direct us there so I can hang up. Something tells me the rest of this conversation is gonna be better off face-to-face, _comprende'?"

Nick chuckled, pulling his Handy-Comp from his back pocket and calling up the directions to Mallory's address, just as she crossed over the room to stand beside him.

"If Trip's with them, he can get them here, Mister Russell," she said sardonically.

"Hear that, V? Just get your directions from Chip Junior. We'll be expecting you asap." Maddie released the communicator toggle, grinning at the other two parents in the room. "Alright, that'll make six more, plus Chip if he's off-shift soon, plus Matt, right, Will?" At the red-head's nod, she looked over at the four teenage girls, three of who were bombarding Mallory mercilessly with questions about her and Trip and the pair's hidden romance. "Soooo, we need dinner for 15, without killing somebody's pocketbook. Any suggestions?"

Will tore her attention away from trying to hear all the details her daughter was spilling about her clandestine love life, and answered, "Better add five more to that list, since I.t.c.h. is going to want to hear about this. And the fifth is Chloe's dad, Caleb," she added, seeing the question forming on Nick's lips. "If we have Hay Lin in the party, she can get us discount Chinese from the best restaurant in town: the Silver Dragon. Her family owns it."

Chloe took two seconds from her interrogation of Mallory to add her two cents to the food discussion. "If we're having a W.i.t.c.h. dinner party, we're gonna need more than twenty chairs, Aunt Will. Don't forget, with Irma and Hay Lin comes Kyle and the brat, since all their usual babysitters are here, and Taranee and Iggy'll bring Nigel, if Uncle Matt doesn't." She wheeled her attention back over to the other three girls, and grimaced. "Did I forget anybody?"

"Just Aunt Lils and _my_ mom," Cordelia deadpanned. "Of course, getting ahold of either of our favorite Queens of Hearts is usually like next to impossible on such short notice." She grinned at her own pun, then turned to Will. "Would it be easier to gather everybody at Chloe's, Aunt Will? They've got that huge patio, and we could gather all the chairs from both places on it."

Will grinned her thanks at Dee, coming to a quick decision. "Alright, you four are on chair hunting duty as of right now. I'll start making phone calls; and I guess I better start with your mom, huh Chloe?" As the blonde girl groaned, Will chuckled evilly. "No sense completely ruining the surprise of having an unexpected party in your house. I'll just tell her we're having a Guardian's Meeting at her place. She always wants the opportunity to show off her latest decorative additions, and since we haven't been over for _three whole days …"_ Seeing the girls mirror her wicked grin was answer enough. Turning back to Nick and Maddison, she asked, "So, is there anybody else we should be inviting to this little Pow-wow? And would it take them three hours to get here?"

"Just my Brother-in-Law, Zander. He's our other teammate. Vida's probably already called him about Sam being in the hospital, so if he's not already halfway between towns, we could probably get him to jump here from Briarwood quick enough. And I bet we could convince him this is Ranger business, so taking the express route wouldn't be a rulebreaker." Nick answered.

"What's the 'express route'? And what rule?" Will asked in confusion.

Maddison gave her a quick grin. "The three rules of being a Power Ranger: 'Never reveal your identity'," her grin widened as she held up her helmet in her gloved hands. "'Never escalate a battle', and 'Don't use your powers for personal gain'. And believe me, that last one was the hardest for us to stick to, huh, Nick?" she added, giving her husband a nudge with her hip. "As for the express route, we have the ability to use the trees as bridges between places; just step into one, and exit another where you need to be. It made getting to the site of a battle easier in emergencies, that's for sure. 'scuse me just a moment."

Standing back from the other two, she held her helmet up again. "Back into action!" she cried, and the helmet settled back onto her, enveloping her waist-length cascade of brown hair magically back inside. She struck a fighting stance, and waved one hand in a 'come and get me' gesture at her husband. Nick just laughed, then aimed a quick jab at her stomach, followed by a haymaker to her temple. She blocked both, lightning-fast, catching his arm after the second one, and pulled him in close. "POWER DOWN!" Maddie cried, and reappeared in her leather and denim outfit with a flash of blue light and a puff of water vapor. She pulled Nick the rest of the way in for a kiss, then released his arm.

Will giggled at their display, martial and otherwise, and grabbed the phone off the wall. Hitting speed dial number four, she waited out the usual three rings, and started talking as soon as she heard Cornelia's airy "Hello?"

"Hey, C. It's W," she started, using their old Guardian code to make sure she had Cornelia's attention. "Some elemental things have come up; it's not urgent, but it _is _important, so get home as soon as you're done at work, and we'll meet you at your place. _Ciao_." Hanging up, she immediately went to speed dial five, hoping to catch Hay Lin between hangar and gallery.

Ever-happy Hay Lin had turned her painting hobby into a stellar career, sharing a Gallery with their rescued Renaissance friend Elias Van Dahl. She'd parlayed her first commission into flying lessons at the local airfield, in order to spend as much of her time airborne as possible. Now, having worked her way through from single-engine propeller to twin-jet, as well as qualifying on helicopter, Hay Lin Linden was starting to give flying classes herself.

As Will breathed in to deliver the same quick message to Hay Lin, the former Air Guardian beat her to the punch._ "Will! Great timing! I was just about to call YOU! Irma just called me, 'cause her Dinner with Martin got interrupted by an emergency call, and you won't believe what the emergency was! Iggy was fighting off these two gangsters in the alley behind Chez Chic, and they set him on FIRE! But guess WHAT? It didn't hurt him! He threw it right back at them, and even torched their car, before Irma and half the police force stopped the fight! Taranee was there, too, and she should be calling you right about …"_ Hay Lin's triumphant 'NOW!' was muffled by the call-waiting beep in Will's ear. The bemused red-head told Hay Lin to hold that thought for a second, once again surprised by the Asian woman's uncanny intuition. Switching signals, she murmured a quiet greeting, and braced herself for the upcoming stream of verbal bombardment from her first friend in Heatherfield.

"_W? It's T. Just listen, I'll keep this quick. We've had a major development in my department, and I'm on my way to your place as we speak. Just get the others ready for a meeting, and I'll see you in a few."_ Without waiting for a response or saying goodbye, Taranee disconnected. If Will hadn't already known what the emergency with the former Fire Guardian was, she'd have been completely stumped by that call. Remembering that Hay Lin was still holding on the line, she hit the switch button on her phone, and updated the painting pilot about the now doubly-urgent meeting starting at Cornelia's place.

"Just get here as soon as you can with your kids, Hay Lin. All your babysitters're here at my place. Oh, and you may want to warn your folks about a _really_ big take-out order we're about to place." Clicking off, Will sat for a moment, idly wondering to herself. _'Okay, Air, Fire, Water, and apparently, someone to wield the Heart, if this super-speed boy is the fourth. Earth hasn't shown itself yet, but I'll bet it's one of the C-girls, just 'cause that's how these things usually work.'_ At that thought, Will winced, then sighed with relief that they were having this meeting _outside,_ just in case. She was faintly aware of Nick talking with the Russell's friend Zander on his cell across the room.

Hitting her speed one, she waited for Matt to answer. When he did, she gave him almost the same message she'd given to Cornelia, only adding at the end that it wasn't going to be _just_ the Guardians there, and that she needed him to swing by the Silver Dragon and pick up the order they were about to place for twenty-five people. When he was done sputtering and swearing, she reminded him sweetly that she loved him, and made a loud kissing noise at her phone. As she hung up, she could hear him telling Nigel in the background that their wives were nuts.

_Mystic_

Mallory perked up from her perch on the wall around the Hale's patio, where she'd been watching for arrivals as the last hour passed. First had been Taranee and Iggy, who'd staggered out of his mom's truck as if he were drunk, wearing one of Trip's spare yellow t-shirts. Next had been a big black SUV with pink pinstriping, which had disgorged Trip himself, along with his mom Clare, his brother A.J., and a trio of people Mallory had only seen in pictures so far. Trip had immediately looked up and spotted her, and the shaggy-headed teen standing next to him had glanced her way too. Trip waved, and Mallory giggled and curled her fingers in his direction, while he mouthed the word 'Sam' and pointed at his half-brother. The C-girls, hearing her giggle, had both looked over the side from where they were watering all of Aunt Cornelia's plants in the last of the late afternoon sunlight, and 'Hmmm'd appreciatively at the sight of young Sampson Rocca. Mallory figured the last two people out of the truck were Sam's mom Vida, and his younger brother Toby.

Mallory hopped down from the wall and stretched before going in to tell her mom that the next wave of guests had arrived. When she found Will, the former Energy Guardian was massaging Iggy's temples at the kitchen table, with Taranee hovering protectively nearby. Across from the trio, Yvonne sat in front of a large mixing bowl full of water, her parent's eyes following her every move from their flanking positions at her sides. She was slowly drawing strands of water out of the bowl with the tip of her finger, stretching them into shapes, and willing them to stay suspended in mid-air over the bowl. So far, she had half a dozen, but her every other try still seemed to fall back into the pool before her despite her best efforts. When Mallory cleared her throat for everybody's attention, Yvie's concentration broke completely, and all her work sloshed back into the bowl.

"Thanks, Aunt Will, that headache was a killer." Iggy stopped staring at the insides of his eyelids and, putting his glasses back on, focused on Mallory. "'sup, cuz?" he said with a grin, standing up. The shirt he'd borrowed from Trip, since his jersey had been flambéed, read _'I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.'_

"Trip and his family just pulled up," Mallory replied. "I'm gonna buzz them in, K, Mom?"

"No, I will!" the seven at the table heard from the patio.

"Not if I get there first!" was the immediate follow-up, at which point the two blonde girls were seen fighting each other to get through the balcony door and reach the intercom plate by the door, which was buzzing insistently as the others laughed at Chloe and Cordelia. Will waved a hand in the direction of the door, and they could all hear the intercom crackle to amplified life.

"Miss Will, there's a rather large bunch of powerful people waiting at the gate. Shall I admit them?" The Russells all gaped at the red-haired Guardian as the stuffy English voice issued from seeming thin air.

"Go ahead, Alfred," Will answered, all the while trying not to laugh herself sick. Her ability to talk with electrical appliances over the years had come in handy as a tool of the trade for an electrician, but there were times, like just now, that she wished she hadn't gotten into the habit of naming the ones she was around on a regular basis. She explained as much to the quizzical trio across the table, and ended with, "You know, like Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's butler." Nick and Maddie grinned immediately, but Yvonne just rolled her eyes.

Just then, somebody knocked on the door in the old 'shave-and-a-hair-cut' staccato, and Maddison stood up. "That would be my sister," she supplied, flitting to the door and knocking twice in response, an old signal the pair had come up with as teenagers when they'd finally gotten their own rooms, but still wanted to interrupt each other's privacy. Swinging the door open, Maddie grinned at Vida, Clare, and their four boys. "Hey, gang, the party's starting soon out on the patio. Just confiscate some seats, and as soon as everybody's here, we'll explain everything." She waved everybody past her, nabbing her sister's sleeve as she was trying to hurry through. In an urgent undertone, she asked, "Is it true? Did you really drop a door on Sam's head with Clare's wand?"

"Well, no. And yes. Y'see, what happened was …" and Vida hastened into telling her sister what really happened in the Thorn's apartment at lunchtime, Maddie all the while aware of Nick listening in.

Mallory meanwhile was finally introducing Trip to her mother, and her mother to his mother (which turned out to be unnecessary, since the two moms had hosted a pair of bake-sales together during the school year, and were already fast friends.) When the pair found out that their children had been dating behind _both_ their backs, the two teens beat hasty retreats to hide behind Sam and the C-girls, who were positively gushing over his amazing physique. Sampson Rocca was leaps and bounds ahead of even the most muscle-bound bully in their grade, Henry Dunn, son of the terror of the Guardian's school years Uriah, and also one of the infamous Grumper Cousins. Sam flexed appreciatively in the adoration.

Toby and A.J. were milling around on the patio, feeling totally ignored, which neither of them was used to, with such overbearing and overprotective parents. At the moment, Toby was teasing A.J. about Trip. "Dude, your brother is _dating a GIRL."_ The couple in question was plainly obvious, since they were coming out onto the balcony in order to avoid the renewed grilling from the four other teens now all gathered around them.

"Yeah, but if I'm right, your bro isn't gonna be far behind him, if those two are half as into him as they act," A.J. retorted, pointing out Cordelia and Chloe and the way they were practically ripping Sam's arms off as they each hung on one side of him, the three tearing the verbal stuffing out of their respective cousins along with Yvonne. The two young boys settled down in matching wicker chairs on the patio to watch the show.

"Alright, _alRIGHT,_ you've got us! Now what do you want to know?" Trip practically shouted, just so the other four would shut up for five seconds. It _almost_ worked, too.

"How long?" Cordy demanded first, since this question had been burning in the budding young telepath's mind since she'd found out Mallory had managed to hide this from her at all.

"A-about five months," Mallory stammered, shocked at the intensity of the foursome.

"When?" Chloe asked, her voice no less severe, if a little more curious.

"Since Valentine's Day, and incidentally, all _your_ fault," Trip countered, having wanted to thank Chloe for introducing him and Mallory in the first place; just not like _this_. "That 'Blind Valentine' idea of yours really was a cute idea, Chlo; I guess you just really didn't see any of the couples you mixed and matched working out _so well,_ did'ya?" Chloe cringed, remembering the spectacular fiasco that had been Henry Dunn and Suzette Pierce, the French Exchange Student who'd been staying with the Cooks for the second semester. After the two's horrible thirteen-second date, wherein Henry had goosed Suzette, and she'd nearly clawed his eyes out, Chloe hadn't even dared to ask any of her other 'lucky couples' how their night had gone.

"Well, _I_ knew about that much," Yvie interrupted. "I'm just trying to figure out how, in over four-and-a-half months of almost nightly e-mails, you never _once_ mentioned your 'Prince Charming's' name, here, Mal. You just kept calling him 'T'." She actually sounded more hurt than angry, since she'd apparently been the only one on the inside of the relationship info, and she _still_ hadn't known it all.

"Or how, in as many months, as often as we talked, you never even mentioned you were going out with the school hottie, bro," Sampson added. Trip and Mal both blushed at this backhanded compliment, while the C-girls both yelled "HEY!" and Mallory turned to face Yvonne.

"But I _did_ tell you, right after our second date!" she told her web-friend. "You asked why I was punctuating all my sentences with smileys, and I told you I'd just gotten home from my Patty's Day date with Troy!" She huffed with exasperation, ready to tell the next person to grill her where to shove the tell-all expose' they were apparently writing. "How was I to know he was your cousin, huh? You never really mentioned your other relatives, you were usually too busy gushing about boring out new engine parts and all the hot guys hanging around the garage …" Yvie looked down at her shoes in embarrassment, and Trip crowed triumphantly.

"Oho, so _that's _the reason you're working for Uncle Nick, huh Sam? He didn't need an extra set of hands, he knew Aunt Maddie wanted an extra set of _eyes_ to keep _her_ out of trouble!" The other four teens all laughed, while Yvonne glared daggers at Trip. Sam suddenly sobered up and glanced over his shoulder.

"Speaking of trouble, you two …" He made a warning motion with his hands for Trip and Mallory to separate, as Will and Clare bore down on the six teenagers like a stormfront ready to break.

"Alright, you four, give it a rest. I think these two have answered enough questions for one night." Will glanced at each of the four teenagers, sending them clear 'get lost' messages. To their credit, all of the cousins took the hint, and scrambled back into the kitchen to catch up with Iggy instead. Their indignation was only rekindled with Trip and Mallory when, after Iggy had recounted his narrow escape in the alley, he informed them he'd known about the couple since Easter, when they had double-dated with him and Delilah Heptavia.

Clare and Will, meanwhile, had one more question for the pair that they insisted on an answer to. 'Look, we have to ask you both," Will began, suddenly nervous about whether she really wanted to hear an answer from her almost-grown daughter about this. "We don't want to be mean, and we _really_ don't mean to pry, but have you two, I mean did you, …" She made awkward, suggestive shapes with her hands, looking at a spot over her daughter's left ear, and blushing faintly.

Grabbing hold of Will's still-waving hands, Clare came to her rescue, blunt as always. "We just want to know if you two are being promiscuous, is all," she murmured.

"MOM?!" Mallory, cried, mortified, and Trip just started rubbing the bridge of his nose while looking at the floor, muttering "Aw, _jeeeez_."

Alfred the intercom spoke up again, making everybody look towards the door. "Miss Will, Miss Irma is at the gate with her children, buzzing _your_ apartment."

"My bad," Taranee said, as she walked toward the door. "I forgot to call her once we got here and tell her the meeting would be at Cornelia's." Hitting the intercom button for the gate, she said "Hey, I, it's T. We all moved over to C, C, C, & C's place, since there're more chairs here. Come on up, and I'll fill you in."

Just as Will was wondering how Irma had ended up with her and Hay Lin's pair of kids, when Hay Lin had been talking to her from home, Will's cell phone rang in her pocket. Plucking it out, she answered with a curious "Hello?"

The welcome male voice on the other end sent warm shivers down her spine. "Hey, Baby. What's shakin'?" Matt asked in his silliest Elvis impression. Will just giggled. "Sorry, couldn't resist, babe. Any chance you could send several strong backs down to help us unload food in, say, five minutes, Hay Lin?" His voice faded a little on the last few words, and she could tell he'd turned his head to ask the young painter their e.t.a. "Yeah, Will, five minutes. We're in the van, and our instruments're all in the Silver Dragon's basement, and we're all sitting on, like, a dozen server trays of random Chinese, here. Seems the Lins miss us all coming in to besiege the place with our broods, and when our favorite flying artist here told her parents we were all getting together at Cornelia's with some new friends, they insisted on catering the evening. I hope you don't mind, but I put it on our card, and even with the mega-discount they gave us, it's still a hefty chunk of change, babe."

Will sighed in resignation. _'Looks like I'm taking that contract to rewire the Old North Quad of the Sheffield institute from Mrs. Rudolph after all.'_ She smiled away the worried look Taranee sent her way, and jumped back into her phone conversation. "Just give us a ring when you pull in, Matt, and we'll bring the able-bodied down to lend you a hand." Hanging up, she looked at the roomful of people around her. "Hey, everybody, food's on its way, and they'll need help carrying it all in," she announced. With a grin, she added, "Volunteers?"

Irma and her charges came through the door, and she made a bee-line for Will. "Wow," she uttered, looking at the growing gathering of people in the Hale's apartment. "Who're all the new faces, Oh Electric One?" Her five-year-old son Martin was hanging off her arm, shooting wary looks at all the strangers in 'Auntie Cee's Place'.

After hugging her best friend, Will started pointing out individuals to Irma. "Remember when I told you about the little girl who became Mal's pen-pal after I got Matt his motorcycle?" She pointed to Yvonne, who was talking animatedly with Chloe, Cordelia and Iggy at the kitchen table, while absentmindedly swirling her finger around in the mixing bowl full of water she'd been practicing with earlier. As Irma watched with amazement, Yvonne pulled a strand of water out of the bowl with one finger, swirling it around into a lazy spiral as she was gesturing in emphasis about what the teens were discussing, then stuck the water-drawing digit into her mouth, only to become just as amazed as the former Water Guardian, as well as her suddenly-mute trio of listeners, at the strand of water stretching between her hand and the bowl.

"Remind you of anyone?" Will murmured to Irma, who just turned to her dumbfounded. "That's Yvie Russell, from Briarwood. Her parents, Nick and Maddie," and she waved to Maddison, where the pair were still standing by the door with Vida. "Nick built 'Cobalt Dream', and Maddie produces their show, "Motor/Magic". That's her sister Vida with them. I think she does something in music, but I can't remember." Turning poor confused Irma around to face the patio, she continued the introductions. "Trip you know, he's the new Officer Charles Thorn's kid. That's his cousin Sam next to him and Mallory, and behind them is their younger brothers, who I haven't met yet."

Irma got to grin at this, as it meant she actually had some new names to impart, as well. "Well, Oh Fearless Leader, let's say we beard the beasties in their den and introduce ourselves, huh?"

A.J. and Toby were still sitting in their wicker thrones, but had since grown bored of their sibs and cousins, so had pulled out their respective handheld games of choice, and were silently bashing (A.J. had a streetbrawler game) and crashing (Toby preferred racing sims) the last of the afternoon sun away.

Kyle Linden came streaming around the corner, since he'd overheard his godmother saying on the ride over that all the Thorns would be here. He and A.J. had been in the same fourth-grade class, and had become fast friends as the misfits of the grade. Now, he wanted to get the inside scoop on what was actually going on before hearing some parent's edited version of events. Skidding to a halt in front of the duo, Kyle panted, "Hey, A.J. Who's this?"

A.J. perked up at once, seeing a friendly face. "Kyle! I _thought_ I saw your mom at the hospital. We were there with my Mom and Aunt Vida, 'cause she hit my other brother Sam in the head with a door, and I saw her in the parking lot with a bunch of cops talking to Trip after he saved some guy when his car blew up. Oh, and this is my cousin Toby Bly."

Toby paused his game at the mention of his name, and looked up long enough to smile, shake hands, and mutter "G'day," in a passable accent, then went back to his race.

"His dad's Australian," A.J. explained at his friend's quizzical look. Kyle nodded sagely, then glanced down at the games each was holding.

"Still fighting off He Lo Ni, A.J.? I thought you beat him last week."

A.J. looked down at his game. "Aaaah, I did. Now I'm just trying to beat my time in tourney mode."

"Same here," Toby piped up, brandishing his portable. "Oi jest scraped foive seconds off the short run on 'Tokyo Cup'." He entered his initials for his new record, saved, and shut his game off.

Seeing the title of Toby's game pack on the back of his handheld, Kyle gushed. "No WAY! 'Blazing Asphalt 4!' I'm still beating the tar out of three, trying to save up my allowance."

"Ah, but that's what birthdays are for …" Toby's voice trailed off as Will, Irma and little Martin came over, just as Clare zeroed in on the trio of boys as well.

"Alright, you three …" Irma and Clare both started to say, then caught each others' eyes and dissolved in laughter. Will looked back and forth between the two women, wondering who she'd have to slap back to sanity first, when Kyle grabbed her hand.

"Aunt Will, what's everybody doing here?" Will looked down into Kyle's almond eyes, so like his mother Hay Lin's. Her heart went out to him, as she was wondering just that.

"You know what, kiddo? That is a _really_ good question. And as soon as your Uncle Matt and Aunt Cornelia and Uncle Caleb get here, we're gonna all sit down, have some dinner, and find out. Okay?" she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, and looked back up at Clare and Irma, who were still lost in post-laughter gasping. "What's up with you two?"

"Ah, they're always like that," A.J. supplied. "Whenever they meet, sooner or later, they say exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. I think they plan it now, just to mess with us." He looked at his mom in embarrassment.

Irma dabbed tears from her eyes with her sleeve. "Oh, we couldn't plan it this well, A.J. Where'd be the fun in that?" She looked at Will, smiling. "Matt call to say he was on his way with Hay-hay and the grub?" At Will's amused nod, she added, "Good! I'm starving! Lunch got cancelled on account of _Fire-_fighting, and I've been running around nonstop after these two ever since I got back home." She nodded in Kyle's direction while ruffling Martin's hair.

"So how do you two know each other? Besides interdepartmental passing-by, I mean," Will asked the pair of women, remembering that Irma was usually the one who would run to the Police station for the Fire department, if only for the chance to pester her dad. Clare spoke up for them both.

"A.J. and Kyle have, well had, the same teacher for fourth grade."

"Yeah," Irma added, with a sour expression. "Miss Tessmacher." Will shuddered, remembering the bitter old woman from Mallory and Iggy's elementary careers.

"Ghu, that woman's still teaching? I always wondered when she'd retire and become a drill sergeant, y'know?" Looking over the two boys for visible tongue-lashing scars, she was thankfully rescued from the subject by her phone, which rang out once again with the chorus from Cobalt Blue's "The Will to Love", the song Matt had written for her when they were back in high school, and the one that had saved him from a serious demon-possession. "Hello?"

"Hey, Will, we just pulled up. Ya wanna send down … Huh? Slow down, Hay Lin …" Matt's voice faded out as he pulled his phone away, and all Will could hear were indistinct rumbles from around him for a minute.

"Matt? Matt!" She yelled his name a couple more times, then just hung up. Looking at Irma in disgust, she harrumphed, "Well, he called me, anyway." Clearing her throat, she called out to the room at large. "Hey, everybody, food's here, so we need a couple volunteers to help carry up some trays of Chinese."

Most of the teens gathered in front of her, grinning. Will just smirked, and asked Taranee and Irma to clear off some table- and counter-space for all the food. Then she led her volunteers toward the elevator. Just as they got there, the doors opened, and out swept Cornelia Hale, reigning queen of the Green Investors movement, inspired by her Guardian Power and her relation to the Heart of Earth to help those best suited to lead the way to a cleaner, greener, Earth-friendly (but still profitable) future. Upon seeing the gaggle of teens following Will, she stopped short, her eyes wide.

"Alright, I was expecting our kids and husbands, but who are the other three _guests,_ Will? And when were you going to tell me this was _more_ than just a _meeting?"_

"Ah, uh, Cornelia, well, so much has happened today, that when I called you earlier, I only knew about the tip of the iceberg," Will improvised.

"Come on, Cornelia," Hay Lin's airy voice floated from behind the stately blonde. "Yell at Will later. These things are awkward, and you're blocking the hallway."

"_Fine,_" Cornelia huffed, striding forward and letting Hay Lin, Matt and Nigel out of the elevator. They were each holding onto four buffet trays laden with a different delectably-seasoned oriental entrée. The stacks looked heavy, but each was walking along, apparently without effort. Hay Lin had a silly grin on her face, and when Nigel came abreast with Iggy, he gave his son a wink and nodded in Cornelia's direction. That's when his son realized: Aunt Cornelia was actually carrying all the food with her telekinesis, and the other three were just steadying it so nothing fell out on the trip.

Iggy grinned back, and offered to take half his dad's stack in a cheery voice guaranteed to carry to Cornelia, so she'd know someone else got the inside joke. Oblivious, Trip and Sam each sprang forward, volunteering to relieve each of the other two carriers of their 'burden'. From the way Trip staggered, Iggy could tell Cornelia had let him take _all_ the weight of his two trays, just as she did the same to Iggy, but a quick glance at Sam didn't reveal him having any such strain. Granted, his muscular frame was probably in even better condition than Iggy's athletically toned young body, but Sam should have shown _some_ signs of effort. Determining to figure this out, Iggy followed Sam closely, and almost lost his two trays on the doorstep of the Hale's apartment.

Yvonne, who'd been bringing up the rear, leaped to his rescue, and when their hands met on the pans, there was a faint hiss of steam as the sweat on her hands evaporated upon contact with his. Reminded once again of why they were all there, the two teens' eyes met in shared anxiety.

"Hey, you two, hurry up!" Nigel's voice called from the kitchen. "Hay Lin says you've got the Dim Sum hostage out there, and that's a hanging offense in this family, son!" To the general laughter of the others, Iggy finished carrying his burden to the counter, where the last of the open space was barely wide enough to hold the two trays. When the Dim Sum had been moved, Iggy could smell the General Tsao's in the second tray before Irma took it from him, and his mouth watered at the scent of the spice-heated Szechwan. Trying not to think what this sudden craving boded for his previous preferences for decidedly NON-spicy almond boneless chicken and combination fried rice, Iggy joined the queue of people waiting with plates for their favorites.

"So, Corny," Irma shot from her waiting place in line as the former Earth Guardian swished past in her signature floor-length skirt. "Where's your better half tonight?" Cornelia stopped right next to her, the glint in her eyes telling Irma if she hadn't been standing on Cornelia's new ivory Berber, she'd be wearing the investor's plateful of egg foo yung.

"Oh, you know Caleb, _Irmy_. One odiferous whiff of the passling hanging around the dojo, and my hubby's off and running to Metamoor to see what the latest silly threat to Meridian is. Like Elyon can't handle a band of brigands or a surge in larvek breeding without the help of 'the Great Rebel Leader'." She shook her knee-length cascade of golden hair sadly. "You know, it's been two decades since Blunk started spending all his time around humans; you'd think he'd have realized the importance of bathing by now. Candracar knows his wife and kid aren't adverse to a little soapy water."

This last exchange caught the attention of the four teen girls, and while Yvonne was struggling with what a passling was, the reference to smell had her thinking of her godfather Phineas, who as a troblin (the bizarre crossbreed result of a troll and a goblin who'd had the misfortune to fall in a love-spring) was unused to the concept of bathing until he met the Power Rangers and stopped living as a hermit deep in the Briarwood forest.

Chloe and Cordelia were meanwhile pestering Cornelia for any details about what Blunk's summons entailed. Cornelia just huffed her hair out of her eyes, and said "Honestly, girls, you know what these message-passing things run like; Elyon probably woke up after a nap-nightmare thinking Phobos had broken out again, and was yelling for our help while still tearing her way out of her bedsheets. Poor Blunk will have panicked, folded here looking for the first person he'd think of to help, which is ALWAYS Caleb, and my heroic idiot husband barely takes time out of his busy schedule to call and tell me he's off to Meridian to see about an emergency, and he'll be back as soon as he knows more. That was an hour ago, and since he hasn't had Blunk come back for us, and Elyon hasn't folded here in panic herself, odds are the two 'Great Rebels' are hip-deep in swamp-muck, wasting their time chasing some poor pickpocket. I'm honestly not worried at this point."

The other Guardians were all chuckling by the end of this, but the three teen daughters of Heatherfield's heroes were all exchanging dark, worried glances. Cornelia just smirked at them. "Oh, come on, he's faced the _worst_ Phobos, Nerissa, the Tenebrous, _and_ De'rigaan could do, and he's _still_ my favorite action hero. In fact," she continued, striding the rest of the way to her dining room table and hoisting her glass. _'Ahem'_ "I hereby dedicate this excellent Oriental meal to one of the Lin's most dedicated fans. My husband, and invariably the Last Man Standing in any fight ('cause he's too stubborn to fall down,) Caleb Julian Hale." She drained the last of her diet lemonade dramatically to a flurry of applause. Sitting down with her plateful and refilling her glass from the nearby pitcher, she looked at all the adults and teens. "Alright, as the _hotesse_ of this little _fete_, I demand to be let in on what's been going on today."

"That's our Corny," Irma quipped, while Will just shook her head, grinning. Everybody settled in to eat and share their experiences of the afternoon, each of the parents hoping to get a clearer picture of just what was happening to their teen children.

_Mystic_

The meal finished, everybody thought it was finally time to do what needed to be done about the situation with the teens; namely, ask Udonna or the Oracle (or even better, _both_) what the next move actually _was_.

Now, Will stood indecisively in the doorway of the patio with the Heart in her hands. Hay Lin slipped in beside her and gave her a reassuring hug. "Relax, Will. The others know you're doing the right thing. They're just, you know, being _parents_, that's all." She smiled reassuringly at Will, then stepped past and joined her family back outside. Will took a deep breath, and told her sudden case of nerves where to go for five more minutes. As she exhaled, preparing to step out onto the patio once more, Mallory appeared right in front of her.

"Jeez, baby, warn me next time!" Will cried, backpedaling into the Hales' living room once more. Her outthrust hands still had the Heart tightly clenched between them, but she was shaking so badly, Mallory placed her hands around it over her mother's, just in case. A sudden burst of static sent both their hair waving wildly, and their eyes locked briefly in shared tension.

"Mom?" Mallory dove straight into her wild speculation. "I … noticed you didn't hafta go back home to, er, get the Heart out. I was just wondering … How long have you been carrying it around for, … this time?"

"Me? Carrying it? Well …" Will sighed again, knowing from the determined set of her daughter's eyes, so like her own, that there was no bluffing out of this one. "About three days now, baby. I was just, … um … oh, #&)(, you're old enough to know about this, we've already had _that _talk; I was trying to get pregnant. You know your father and I have always wanted another kid, baby. I'm not getting any younger, and I thought the Heart of Candracar might be able to give us a boost. I mean, a little bit of quintessence couldn't hurt …"

"Quint … essence ..?" Mallory echoed the unfamiliar word. At her utterance, the Heart, which had just barely flickered at Will's murmuring of the invocation, sparkled to blinding life in their joined hands. The flash of light it emitted engulfed the pair in the doorway, almost blinding the impatient few watching them from the patio.

At Matt's cry of alarm, Trip spun around from where he and his brothers were sitting. Seeing the pink electrical discharge cascading around Mallory and her mother, he jumped up, determined to charge to the rescue. Sam was standing next to him in a heartbeat, and the two were aware of Iggy, Yvonne, Chloe, and Cordelia rising around them. The other former Guardians were even closer, but they were all standing frozen in shock, uncertain what to do. His system already amped up with the day's excitement and his usual obscene amount of caffeine, Trip could _feel_ that weird speed-shift happening to him again, just as it had in the hospital parking lot. Stepping around the Lairs, Trip's brain started running in overdrive.

'_Cmon, think. Electricity, what stops electricity? Grounding, but we're four stories up, and they're already standing on terra-cotta. Um, … INSULATION! Great. Rubber, … rubber, … don't see any boots or shoes, … gloves, maybe, in her mom's truck … downstairs …'_

A faint flickering voice came to him, almost as if someone were shouting directly into his mind from a great distance. _"Cornelia … has … rubber … gloves … under … the … bathroom … sink!"_

Looking wildly around for who could have gifted him with this invaluable information, he noticed Taranee, who was looking at _him_, instead of staring at Mallory and Will like everyone else. She blinked twice, ensuring him, and he took off at a run, his super-speed carrying him deftly past the electric duo and straight to the first lavatory. Tearing the doors of the cupboard open, he was rewarded with the blessed sight of a plain, old-fashioned set of green rubber cleaning gloves. Pulling them on as he ran back, he skidded to a halt next to Will and Mallory, then looked back at Taranee for what he should actually _do._

"_Just … take … the … Heart … of … Candracar … from … BOTH … of … them,"_ Taranee sent to him telepathically. He nodded, slowly so she could notice, then set his legs firmly, and reached out for the Heart with his gloved hands. As soon as he squeezed his fingers between the two women's still-outstretched hands to separate them from it, all three stopped coruscating. He immediately looped the Heart's chain around one finger, as he grabbed each woman with one arm and settled to the floor, propping them up.

Will looked wildly around, breathless. "What just happened? Trip? How'd you get over here? And why do you have the Heart?" She seemed to have suffered no ill effects from the surge of power at all. Mallory, however, had apparently taken her first contact with the Heart of Candracar adversely, to say the least. Her hair was all sticking out strait, her shoes had left faint scorch marks where she'd stood, and she was twitching slightly. What Trip couldn't figure out, holding her close and trying not to scream her name in panic, was why she was _smiling_, after all that.

Mallory's eyes fluttered open, to see a crowd of her favorite people circled around herself, Will, and Trip. While wondering how Trip had gotten between her and her mom, she was relieved to see her father gently take Will into his arms, and help her stand back up. Mallory became aware that something was wrong with the scene she was watching, but she couldn't quite place what.

Then Trip's mouth moved, and when she couldn't hear him, she knew what was wrong. "Hey, where'd the sound … go ..?" she started to ask, but when she couldn't hear her own voice, either, she started to panic, waking the rest of the way from the electrical knockout she'd suffered.

Taranee and Cordelia both heard Mallory's mental cry of confusion, and both surged forward to try to help. "Trip, help me get her to the couch," Dee started, grabbing Mallory's feet. Trip shifted his hold on her shoulders, and the two hoisted the auburn-haired girl to Cornelia's artfully arranged cushion-covered sofa. Taranee sent a mental call to her four fellow former Guardians, and the five women gathered in a semicircle around Mallory's head, their hands linked.

"Alright, just like we did for Yan Lin." Closing her eyes, Taranee reached inside herself, feeling her power, then expanded her awareness to the other four women, sensing the heat of their bodies near her. Then she searched for the heat that was Mallory, stretched out before them, and noticed two additional hot spots that were attached. Opening one eye, she saw Troy Thorn and Cordelia were holding one of Mallory's hands each, giving her silent moral support. Keeping her attention on her power, Taranee spared a second to grin apologetically at the two, then spoke again. "Hey, you two, we've got this. You can let go for a minute." Trip and Cordy hastily released Mallory and backed up, unsure of what the Guardians were doing.

Hay Lin was actually thinking of the last time the five of them had used their powers similarly, just after her son Kyle's birth nine years before.

_Mystic_

Her grandmother Yan Lin's health had been failing throughout that year, and after a severe bout of pneumonia, the family doctor had told them that she probably wouldn't be with them much longer. Yan Lin's smiled defiance of that pronouncement was immediate. "Nonsense," she'd said. "I'm not leaving 'till I get a good look at my great-grandson."

As the newly-married Hay Lin had just gotten pregnant, and hadn't even gotten to tell her family yet, this news was greeted by her parents as just another of the stubborn old woman's sayings. Hay Lin had immediately confronted her grandmother, however. "Grandma, how did you _know?"_

Yan Lin had looked at her granddaughter, chagrined, then gave the reed-thin girl a knowing smile and a wink. "Because, my little dandelion puff, you seemed even lighter on your feet than normal, and what other happy news could there be?" Hugged by her jubilant parents, Hay Lin Linden had happily cried all over her grandmother's shoulder, as Yan Lin repeated her promise to be with them for at least another year.

As she had feared, Yan Lin saw her great-grandson born on her final Earthly day. That night, a harried Taranee had roused an exhausted Hay Lin from the rocking chair in her son's new nursery, which she'd decorated herself with murals of the four dragons and the faerie princess Xin Jing. Teletransporting to Yan Lin's bedside, the two Guardians were met there by their three teammates.

"My girls," the Asian grandmother had said, smiling through a bout of coughing, which had left specks of blood on her lips. Hay Lin's heart, so full of happiness at her son's birth, had nearly broken at the sight. "I am so proud of each and every one of you. Now, it is time for one last lesson, my daughters, the hardest one of all. Letting go." She'd locked eyes with each of the Guardians one at a time, silently communing with them, smiling the while. What each girl took from that final meeting, they never said, and never needed to. When Yan Lin had gotten to her granddaughter at last, her voice was hoarse with unspoken emotions. "Do not cry, my little dandelion. I go now where I am most needed, and I take with me a sight I shall never forget: the prettiest granddaughter in the world holding the cutest baby boy. Now, before you all start crying, I want you to go. An old woman's final moments should be her own, not nursemaided, like some bad soap opera."

"Actually, Yan Lin," Taranee had blurted. "We've come to do something for _you."_ She had smiled sheepishly, reminding Yan Lin all the more of the shy young girl she'd selected to be the Fire Guardian. "We've been doing a little research, on folk medicine and faith healing and the like, and we think …"

Yan Lin had held one wasted hand up. "Don't even think it, Taranee. You girls are the most accomplished guardians I've ever heard about. Even the Oracle is impressed with the ways you five have grown with your powers. But even _you,"_ and she'd locked eyes with each of the stunned young women in turn again, "should not think to cheat death like this. My time is done, and I've more than spent it well. Now let it _be_." With that, she'd fallen back, once again coughing bloodily.

"NO!" Irma shouted. "Goddess, we're not talking about magical super-cures or beating the grim reaper in chess or _anything like that!_ JEEZ! We … we're just talking about … about letting us take the pain away, so you can go on to Candracar _peacefully_, instead of hacking up a lung on the doorstep, ya know?" She'd huffed a couple expletives under her breath, wiping tears from her eyes, though whether from fury or sadness was hard to say. Yan Lin looked sorrowfully at the Water Guardian, properly chastised.

"Then it seems you girls have come to teach _me_ a final lesson as well," she had answered. "Humility and graciousness are befitting gifts with which to enter the afterlife, my daughters, and I thank you for them. Now, what _did_ you have in mind?" At that, the five Guardians had gathered in a semicircle around Yan Lin, hands joined, each softly calling her element, summoning forth the primal energy from within themselves, but without bringing the full brunt of an actual elemental manifestation to bear on her age-wracked form.

Hay Lin gently lifted her on a cushion of air, while Taranee slowly warmed the space surrounding her, making her comfortable. Irma and Cornelia were working subtle changes of the elements inside her, she could feel, clearing her lungs of fluid that did not belong, fortifying the weak spots in her spine and hips she'd been feeling for years. Meanwhile, Will was sending small jolts of quintessence throughout Yan Lin's body, reawakening the exhausted defense systems that should have fought off this ridiculous cold she'd caught visiting Hay Lin in the Maternity Ward that morning. Then she took her first pain-free breath in months, and wept.

A guilty corner of her mind spoke up and told Yan Lin that if she just let them continue, the five women could very well have erased all the damage seventy-five years of stressful living had done to her body. But then her conscience spoke up, reminding her she'd already refused that gift. Even as she was having that internal argument, the girls each were withdrawing their power, slowly settling her once again in her old bed, and Hay Lin tucked her in once more, her slow tears falling gently on her grandmother's cheek. Yan Lin wiped her thumbs under the eyes of her son's child, collecting the next tears before they could fall, then brought them to her own lips for a kiss, and murmured for the air to dry her dear granddaughter.

The other four Guardians started to take a few steps back, knowing this final moment could play out without them, but Hay Lin frantically whirled around, grabbing Cornelia and Will's hands and pulling them back up close, wanting, _needing _them there. Irma and Taranee hastily rejoined the three, locking fingers to sweaty palms. Yan Lin smiled once more, taking in the sight of the Guardians, hands joined in friendship, the true source of their strength. "My girls," she sighed, beaming proudly. "Until we meet again …" With a final sigh, the former Air Guardian had settled slowly, her features sagging and her eyes shutting, all the life that was Yan Lin now residing in a new state of being, and the five girls settled slowly to the floor, all of them holding Hay Lin as she, and they, wept a silent farewell to a woman who had been a mentor … a _Grandmother_, to them all.

_Mystic_

Now looking down at Will's daughter over the generous endowments motherhood had graciously bequeathed her, Hay Lin realized _this_ healing would have more to do with her power than Yan Lin's had, as sound was part of her Air element. Concentrating on the area of Mallory's ears, Hay Lin found the most unusual thing; a layer of power was drawn around Mallory, not just at her temples, but all around the young girl, like an envelope, sealing her completely away from the pains of the world. Realizing where this must have come from, she immediately started yelling telepathically at Will.

"_Wilhelmina Vandom Olsen, unquintessence your daughter RIGHT NOW. You've cut off her AIR SUPPLY with this shield of yours!"_

"_WHAT?"_ was Will's only response, echoed by the other girls, who were still marshalling their powers and thinking in terms of a medical mission. Will immediately held her hand out, and the Heart of Candracar flashed out from around Trip's hand and back to her. "Quintessence!" she cried, and a pink layer of light burst like a soap bubble from around Mallory, who immediately sat up, and screamed out in the extremes of her silence-induced panic. As soon as she heard her own voice in true-to-life stereo, she clammed up with a sheepish 'Eep!'

"Wow. Oi haven't heard a set of lungs loike that since the last toime Keira and Oi had to save the Ovehdroive blokes," an Australian voice drawled from the door of the patio. Everybody whirled around to see a handsome young man with brown hair and a roguish grin, wearing a green filigreed vest over a white tunic, with black pants and boots. He was holding a gold and green cell phone just like Maddison's, and it was flipped all the way open.

Cries of "Dad!" and "Zander!" filled the room, while Cordy noticed that all the old Guardians had tensed up involuntarily, while spinning towards the door … except for Cornelia.

Sidling closer to her Mom-away-from-Mom, the young Meridianite asked, "What's up, Aunt C?" Cornelia just looked down at her best friend's daughter, and smiled.

"Oh, the trees on the balcony told me he was coming. Tiffany," and she waved a hand in the direction of a rainforest fern, which grew in a shape like an old desk lamp, "said I'd like him, even if he is a player." Dee giggled at that, since she'd heard Aunt Cornelia's passing comments from her plants before, and knew they were worse gossips than the Grumper Cousins in school.

Meanwhile, Zander was telling his old teammates how he'd gotten up to the fourth floor. " …Vida told me about Sam's accident, Oi left Phineas in charge at the store and hit the road. When Nick caulled me, I was already at the rest stop half-way. He gave me directions here, and when Oi pulled up, Oi heard aull the shouting and sawr the pink flash, so Oi jumped up through the Japanese Maple in the corneh there." He hoisted a thumb in the direction of the red-leafed tree standing close to the patio doorway, which shivered and bowed in acknowledgement of all the attention. Everybody laughed.

Vida closed the distance between them, and Zander pulled her into a sweeping kiss like something from an old swashbuckling movie. Maddie and Clare 'Awwww'd, while Nick and all their kids groaned. Kyle laughed when Toby pretended to hock up his dinner. Zander straightened the two of them up, mock glared at (most of) his assembled teammates, and said, "What? You think Chip's the only one who loikes wearing the cape?"

Trip was helping Mallory back to her feet. "You all right, Mal?"

Thinking of something she'd overheard him say months ago after the Heatherfield PD/FD Easter egg hunt, and now realizing where the phrase must have come from, she smiled up at him. "Morphinominal, Troy," she whispered, tilting her lips towards his. He leaned toward her …

"Hey!" Sam bellowed, jarring them out of their private moment. He strode up to the pair from where he'd been on the patio, his expression crestfallen. "She stealing your lines along with your heart, bro?" He glowered menacingly at Mallory for a second, then started waggling his eyebrows in a bad Groucho Marx imitation while saying "You want we should take care of her for ya?" Mal couldn't help but laugh, while Trip just grumbled at his brother for the untimely interruption.

"And who is this hypothetical 'we', Sam?" Yvonne drawled from behind him, making the trio realize they effectively had everyone's attention … again. "Because as the person who's known the pair of them _as_ a pair apparently the longest, I approve of the match."

"Yeah," Iggy added in his cheeriest tone, stepping forward and throwing an arm each around Trip and Mallory's shoulders. "These two are too cute to break up." Then he leaned in close to Trip and growled, "Of course, if you break her heart, we'll skin ya alive. No offense." He looked at the C-girls for confirmation, but the two just stared back stonily.

"We're reserving judgment on this one," Chloe stated flatly, her eyes narrowed in Trip's direction.

"I'm with Sam. We need more input before we can call yeah or nay," Cordelia added, still mad they'd managed to hide _this_ from her.

"What? We don't get a say in this?" Clare and Will echoed each other, mirror images of maternal disapproval.

The teens all shared a look together, then answered "Nope!" The uninvolved parents all had a good laugh, while Nick and Matt shared a pained look of fatherly doom.

Just then, Nick, Maddie, Vida and Zander's golden cell phones all chirped at them. Vida, whose nerves were already close to the edge with all that had happened to her that day, was quickest to answer. Without even looking at the screen, she _knew_ who was calling for their attention at this point. Flipping her Mystic Phone open, she squeaked "Hi, Chip."

"_Don't you 'hi' me, Vida Angela Rocca Bly. What the #&)( gave you the idea to just leave a message on our answering machine for me to call you after work and find out what's been going on, when dispatch has been gossiping all day about Sam getting hit by a door, which I'm looking at right now, by the way, and what the #&)( happened? Dispatch also let me know about Trip saving some guy from a car accident I never heard about, as well as the chief's nephew, one of Trip's classmates incidentally, getting involved in a gang tussle, along with his mother and one of her oldest friends. And now apparently, the whole lot of you are closeted away somewhere on the other side of town in an emergency Ranger meeting I'm just finding out about from my answering machine?!"_ There was a sudden burst of static. Then Chip's voice, which had started out loud enough Vida had kept the phone at arm's length, and steadily risen to the point that the rest of them could hear his rant unaided, came back at a mere whisper, which even Hay Lin and Sam were hard pressed to listen in on. _"Which I just fried. Oh, man. I haven't lost it like that in years, V. Tell Clare I'll buy a new one next check, huh? And uh, could someone come get me for this meeting please? All these 'burbs start looking alike after sundown."_ With a snicker, she relayed the two requests.

Clare just shook her head. Will leaned over and whispered something to her, which Vida barely caught beneath Zander volunteering to go get Chip. It sounded like the former leader of the Guardians had said, "Just bring it over tomorrow, I'll fix it."

While Zander was getting a fresh round of 'wow's following his disappearance through the Maple in the corner, Taranee led Iggy into the kitchen. "You may not be able to grow a fireball from scratch yet," she said, picking up one of the server pans of Chinese cuisine still crowding the counter. "But I'm betting you can help me generate enough heat to warm these back up before they return." She gave her son one of her dazzling smiles, which had always been able to get his father to do even the most wretched chore without complaint, and Iggy immediately realized this wasn't going to be an easy challenge. Then she added the one phrase sure to get him riled up. "You game, Iggy?" He smiled back, nodding as he picked up the General Tsao's tray. He noticed three-quarters of the tray was still untouched, which meant only one or two others had eaten any aside from him. Taking personal bets, he looked up again at his mother expectantly.

Taranee cleared her throat, then shook her many-beaded braids away from her glasses. _"It'll be easier this way,"_ she started telepathically. _"Do you remember the feeling of the fire back in the alley?"_ Waiting for Iggy to think back to the strange incident and sift through the varied sensations he'd had flying through his senses until he found the right frame of reference, she wasn't aware that they'd attracted an impromptu audience of their own.

The Russells were all standing in the doorway, Yvonne somehow drawn by the unfamiliar mental voice, while her parents were following for their own reasons. Maddie was mainly concerned for her daughter still, and unsure where this new circle of friends might lead her. Nick had been keeping a quiet eye on Iggy and Taranee ever since he'd learned the pair shared his element. Ever since finding out about his parentage those many years ago, he'd always strived to learn more magic, and saw this as a unique opportunity to see someone wielding his familiar friend in an unfamiliar fashion.

"_Now, harness the fire from within you, and bring it out slowly into your hands, then into the pan. And DO try to stop before you flambé anything, dear."_

Iggy kept a careful eye on the mostly-full pan of food, smelling the seasoning slowly sharpen, heighten, with each wave of heat he called out of his belly and into his hands. _'Carefully, slowly, …'_ When he saw the first curl of steam, he almost dropped the tray in astonishment. Then he DID almost barbeque the whole thing in his elation, as his rising emotions translated into a spike of power. Fortunately, a guardian angel sent a fine spray of water droplets over him and the tray, so the Szechwan sent up a mighty cloud of saliva-inducing peppery steam instead.

Glancing over his shoulder in gratitude, fully expecting his Aunt Irma to be waiting to deliver one of her trademark scathing remarks, he was instead pleasantly surprised to find his hazel eyes meeting a pair of black irises in a darkly tanned face surrounded by waves of chocolate-brown hair, all built around a quiet half-smile of triumph.

"Did that help?" Yvonne asked, direct as always.

Iggy shook some water from his eyes and his dreds, eliciting inadvertent cries from the three parents. "Actually, yeah. Thanks." He deftly slid the now-steaming hot tray back into place on the counter, grabbed the Dim Sum, and turned back to his mom. "Looks like Aunt Irma's got another junior firefighter, huh?"

Nick strode forward, taking up one of the other half-full trays. "Mind if I join the class? I've never really tried the low-powered stuff; usually, we're trying to roast monsters before they eat someone. This looks like it could be just as much of a challenge." Taranee just gulped, nodded, and cast a nervous glance in Maddie and Yvie's direction, as if to say 'Can you soak them BOTH?' Noticing her husband Nigel also watching all of them out of the corner of her eye, she took a deep calming breath.

Picking up another tray of her own, Taranee repeated her directions out loud for Nick's sake, as the Rangers didn't seem to be receptive to her telepathy, although she supposed that could just be from years of training NOT to be susceptible to random voices, in case they weren't benign. Nick turned out to be a natural at fine control, and in short order, and with only one other emergency misting, the trio had all the oriental leftovers ready-to-serve hot again.

Just in time too, as Zander came strolling out of the Japanese Maple on the balcony again. "Go on, admit it, ye missed mie," he rambled good-naturedly to the waiting parents and teens who'd stayed out on the balcony.

"With every lightning bolt so far," Officer Charles "Chip" Thorn uttered in friendly mockery as he emerged next. Shaking leaves out of his uniform, he turned back to the red-leafed tree. "Man, I haven't done that since we moved here. I forgot what a rush that is." Turning to Clare as he doffed his hat, he leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. "Hi, honey, I was home."

She just grinned back, and asked the inevitable question. "Hungry? We've got some Chinese left." His face lit up at the mention of food, but then his eyes landed on Vida's pensive expression, and his whole demeanor started to Jekkyl-and-Hyde before Clare's eyes. Cordelia could plainly hear the raging argument taking place in his head.

'_Yell at Vida. Eat first, more energy to yell. Yell first, then recover over food. I smell Dim Sum. She REALLY needs yelled at. Less likely to commit homicide on a full stomach, so eat first, I smell Moo Shoo Pork, you can yell at her whenever you like, and besides, every time you discharge your firearm, there's a ton of paperwork, so …'_ With a final glare in Vida's direction, Chip walked stiffly into the kitchen, where a distracted Nick was more than happy to help him get a heaping plateful of food. Then he sat at the table for a few minutes, emptying it.

Zander, meanwhile, had ambled more slowly into the area, and was chatting up Nick while unhurriedly gathering up bitefuls of each dish on a plate. While he was still debating over the General Tsao's, Chip abruptly stood back up, his plate practically vacuumed sterile, and proceeded to reload. Everyone except the young boys had at this point stopped doing everything else and were simply watching him, waiting for the inevitable explosion of questions they knew were fomenting within his slim, red-haired frame. His two elder sons, Vida, and a concerned Cordy were studying him especially closely, hoping for a sign to gauge his mood by. Dee in particular was despairing, since once he'd sat down all she'd been able to catch from him were snippets about the various dishes he was plowing through. Chip seemed intent on burying his anger under a blanket helping of all ten dishes on the counter (the beef with broccoli and the seafood low mein hadn't survived the first thirteen people.)

To take her mind off the impending interrogation, V went over to Zander and asked why he was just sampling dishes. Putting his chopstick-speared dumpling back down, he grinned. "Tell ye the treuth, V, Oi was in such a rush te get te Heathehfield, Oi'd forgot ye lot were orderin' food, and hit the first droive-threu Oi sawr at the off-ramp." His grin widened. "But nao worries. Oi get the feelin' we're gonna be here a whoile, and a second meal later tonoight won't hurt." That said, he popped his dumpling in his mouth.

Chip got back up, loading his plate from three trays he hadn't raided yet, and settled back at the table more sedately, eating at an almost (for him, anyway,) leisurely pace. Vida, in an attempt to stave off his earlier fury with her, grabbed a cola from the fridge and set it down by him. He mumbled a distracted "Fanks," around his mouthful of egg foo yung, but didn't look angry about her solicitousness.

Cordelia nodded surreptitiously to Aunt Taranee, the two telepaths having kept an eye on his anger level together since his earlier mental rant about Vida. Nick meanwhile had watched his long-time friend and teammate from his vantage by the counter. Having heard Chip's screaming interrogation of Vida over his Wind-powered sister-in-law's Mystic Morpher, Nick knew Chip just needed a chance to calm down, a lesson the two hot-heads had learned together painfully under Daggeron's tutelage. Now, Nick was reasonably sure Chip, approaching full on the menu meter, was bottoming out angst-wise.

Watching his electric team-member take a slow final bite before finishing off the cola, Nick nodded to himself. As if they were waiting for that exact signal, the rest of the Ranger contingent stood as one and approached the table, ready to fill Zander and Chip in on what was becoming the weirdest day of their kids' lives. The former Guardians and their own teens followed, some remembering to bring back in their chairs, as most were still out on the patio.

"So, tell me what happened," Chip and Zander both said. Irma started laughing, pointing at Clare, and Will glared at all four of them. Vida cleared her throat, and started in.

"It all began this morning, as I was passing Sheffield Institute …"


	6. Earth

M. Y. S. T. I. C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By: **_A J_

**Disclaimer:** I own neither W.i.t.c.h. nor the Power Rangers. I can claim creatorship for the original characters of Mallory, Chloe, Ignatius, Kyle, Martin, Cordelia, Yvonne, Trip, Arthur, Sampson, Tobias, Dave, Mark, Rick, Simon, Sylvester, Latanya, Delilah, Rhyssa, Esteban, Alonzo, Rona, Louis, and Steve, as well as the plot.

Chapter Six

"Earth"

After the steady flow of information had slowed down to a trickle, and Zander and Chip were finally out of (pertinent) questions, Will, Cornelia and Clare started organizing where all the Briarwood visitors would sleep, since after the Q & A, it was almost midnight. To cries of "Aw, Mom …" and "Please? There's no school tomorrow …" the parents ruthlessly started herding the teens toward the various doors. Chip slowly gathered poor sleeping A.J. up, and Sam effortlessly hoisted his brother Toby. Clare jogged ahead of them, opening doors and calling the elevator, while Will helped Irma and Hay Lin with their two boys the same way.

Zander took it upon himself to start cleaning up, as a late arrival to dinner, and cajoled Nigel, Mallory, Yvonne and the C-girls to give him some assistance. Taranee and Iggy saw to sealing up all the leftovers in their serving trays, and started carrying them out to her truck. Trip designated himself as their doorman, partly to stay out of Zander's infamous 'managerial zone', and also to forestall having to say goodnight to Mallory. Every time they passed each other, they'd bump hips or touch fingertips, till their affectionate displays were on the verge of making the two telepaths strangle them. They had to stop soon enough anyway, when Matt came back from digging out all the W.i.t.c.h. families' sleeping bags from the storage locker on the ground floor, and caught the two of them kissing on the third floor landing.

At last, everybody leaving was down by their respective cars, the littlest boy already strapped in his booster courtesy of Aunt Will, and all the teens were saying their goodnights at the gate. Sam was giving his brother fresh grief every time Trip tried to kiss Mallory goodbye, and the C-girls were quizzing Iggy and Yvonne on their new powers, hoping to garner some tips for when (there was never an _IF;_ both were certain of eventual empowerment) they were granted an element. Finally, Mallory looked down at her watch, and said in a low voice to Trip, "Hey, since he won't leave us alone, why don't you go give Chloe a Birthday Kiss; it's 12:34."

"Wait … It's Chloe's birthday?" Sam drawled, locking gazes with Trip. Then the two looked over to Yvonne, who gave a fleeting grin as wicked as the ones crossing the boys' faces. Cordelia's eyes grew wide as the three turned toward Chloe, now-innocent smiles trained on the newly fifteen-year-old girl.

"Chlo, run." Cordy stepped in front of her, trying to ward them off; from what even she wasn't sure.

Sam didn't even blink at the protective young platinum-haired girl. He merely stepped up and slid one hand under each of her elbows, then smoothly lifted and spun her until her back was to the cube of postboxes next to the gate. "Now, Cordelia, why would you think we were going to do anything _bad_ to dear Chloe. We're just giving her a proper birthday initiation, which is something you just can't escape with this family. We've all survived to the age of fourteen, so what gives you the idea it's so terrible? Hmmmm?"

Mallory suddenly whipped around and slugged Trip in the shoulder. "Is _that_ what that 'extra sparring match' was all about back in March, Troy Thorn?!" Cordelia caught a clear picture of just what the 'initiation' was from Mal's memory of her fourteenth birthday party, held at Uncle Caleb's Self-Defense School.

Chloe's cheeks reddened, as she too remembered what had happened at Mallory's party. "Alright, Thorn, you want me? You're gonna hafta catch me like you did her in March." That said, she struck a defensive stance and held her hands up, palms cupped to deflect anything Trip threw at her.

Across the parking lot, most of the parents had looked up at Trip's yelp when Mallory punched him, and were now watching the other teens all closing in on Chloe, who was looking ready to fight off an army. "What's going on now?" Cornelia asked Hay Lin, positive the eternally-young Air Maiden was reliving some of the Guardian's missed (and miss-spent) youth vicariously through the teens, and was hence eavesdropping at all times. She was answered instead by the _other_ Air-powered former hero, Vida.

"They're just giving her the traditional Birthday Torture: a minute of tickling for every year. Blame Nick, he started it," she added with an evil grin.

"I did not!" The former Red Ranger countered hotly, while his wife and teammates all laughed. "My _father_ did, at Yvie's third birthday party. And she kept it up at Sam and Troy's next birthday, and it just built up from there." He glanced back at the embattled teens, all three Briarwood natives now trying to get past Chloe's defenses, so far unsuccessfully. "Hey, she's pretty good, huh, Chip? Actually, they all are. Who teaches them?"

"That would be my still-missing husband, Caleb," Cornelia began, watching as first Cordelia, then Iggy were cajoled into the escalating sparring match on their front lawn. "Honestly, I had no idea he taught them that much, I always thought they just took the first few classes to humor their over-paranoid uncle and just hung out at the dojo nowadays for the laughs …"

Chip spoke up for the first time, as the other six teens finally managed to bear Chloe down by sheer weight of numbers, and proceeded to tickle her until she was fairly gasping for breath between laughs. "I took a look in his place once on a patrol down that block, y'know? Purely professional interest, this was before Trip started going there in February. But I was pretty impressed with the level of the training. He was teaching a basic self defense class for women, and he had them learning some pretty quick and dirty maneuvers for emergencies, if ya know what I mean. Clare told me later that was only the second class for that group; one of her fellow Bake-Sale moms was in it, and was positively gushing on about how _driven_ their teacher was."

Clare and Will's eyes met, and Will said, "Let me guess: Bess Dunn, right? One of the Grumper sisters, who're notorious gossips, and married to the former school bully of Sheffield, Uriah, which would explain the self-defense class."

Whatever Clare's reply would have been was lost in the sudden outcry of the seven teens, who were hastily backing away from a glowing tear in the air that had appeared right where they were sparring. Will and the other former Guardians all formed up, closing ranks in front of their retreating kids, even as the Mystic Rangers were all flipping their Morphers out just in case.

Their eyes all started watering as they were assaulted by the ungodly reek of a passling fresh from a night's foray into the Bog of Eternal Stench, as Irma had dubbed the swamp the Guardians were always fighting things in under the shadow of Phobos' former castle. Queen Elyon had made efforts with her powers in recent years to shift the wetlands wholesale several miles downriver to unite them with the swamp that reigned over the delta at Meridian's seaport, all to no avail. So the castle still hosted an untamable wildland at its base which invariably drew the worst of Metamoor's animal and criminal element.

Now, Blunk was leading, or rather _carrying_, Caleb through the fresh fold, and upon sight of Will, started crying "Girls! Yes! Caleb, Blunk found Girls! Will, close Fold! Close fast!" The look of terror the passling sent over his un-Caleb-covered shoulder was enough for Will; drawing the Heart of Candracar out, she sealed the portal behind Blunk. As the tear between realities shut, she had an unnerving glimpse of a shadowy hand reaching for the fleeing pair, and could swear the hand was _through the portal_ before the Fold closed, but no limbs got left on the Guardian's side to fall afterwards, so she let her conscience clear on that count.

Cornelia was meanwhile taking Caleb's weight from Blunk's shoulders with an equally concerned Chip's help. While Taranee and Irma put their sparse paramedical training to use reviving Caleb, Cordelia was trying to calm Blunk down, while simultaneously trying to get him to tell her what they'd run into back in Meridian. The passling's answers were of absolutely no help unfortunately.

"Shadow people attacked Queen, City, everything! Princess Dee, must save Princess Dee! Must run, hide with Guardians, hide Heart! Hide from shadow people!" His terror was infectious, as the teens and the Rangers, who weren't as familiar with the forces the Guardians usually fought, tried to picture something which would so demoralize the sturdy Caleb and his faithful squire.

Caleb snapped back to consciousness with a scream of rage and pain. Swinging wildly, he dislodged the three women working around him, and tried to struggle to his feet. One look at the jagged wound across his stomach, and Irma and Chip employed some not-so-gentle restraining moves, while Cornelia cried for Will and Taranee telepathically called to Hay Lin. The five women once again assumed a healing circle, closing in around Caleb while Chip held him still. Between Taranee's heat-sutures, Irma and Cornelia's telekinetic staunching of blood-loss, and Will's Quintessencing of his immune system, (while Hay Lin kept his yelling quieted) Caleb's wounds were all soon closed.

As soon as the last Guardian opened her eyes, power-concentration finished, Chip jumped back out of their ring, allowing Caleb to stand on his own. He still came up swinging, and without Hay Lin's silencing, was suddenly a vocal storm of curses, most directed at the shadowy foes he'd been fighting, then fleeing, last. Seeing instead his wife and her friends, some of them covered in his own fresh-spilled blood, Caleb slumped in relief.

"Guadians! Allies of Phobos have attacked the castle, with forces strong enough to release him! The Queen's Courtiers are secure in the Infinite City, for now. Elyon said she'd go to Candracar to ask the Oracle to reinstate the Veil, until we can recapture him again. Something tells me that won't be enough, this time." The five women knew he was remembering the former prince's last escape over fifteen years before, when he'd turned Caleb against the Guardians with a nasty enchantment, and after Caleb had managed to break it's influence, Phobos had transformed him into a plant. Cornelia had been an emotional wreck, until all five girls had figured out how to unite their powers, as they did later for the healing of Yan Lin, to return Caleb to human form.

Will looked down at the Heart, which pulsed brightly in her hands. "Well, gang, we were gonna have to talk to the Oracle anyway, I guess the time's now rather than later."

"WAIT!" Irma cried, running back to her Mini and flinging the door open. Her upper half disappeared for a few seconds, then she reemerged with a blinking, yawning Martin. "If we're going, we're ALL going." She nodded at Clare and the two Air Mistresses, hoisting her megapurse back up to her shoulder with her free hand. The other three women all nodded in return, and collected their sleepy preteens from their respective vehicles.

When their entire contingent was assembled on the front lawn around her, Will directed everybody to link hands, then held the Heart aloft and called out, "Heart of Candracar, take us to the Oracle!" In a brilliant flash of rainbow light, the two groups of heroes and their kids disappeared from Heatherfield.

_Mystic_

Yan Lin was sitting in her Memory Room in the Temple of Candracar, thinking of her original team of Guardians, and of a strange encounter they had had with another team of elementally-gifted heroes. The enemy both groups had combined to fight had been a nasty collective of dark sorcerers bent on remaking the world in their own twisted image. The Guardians' role in the war had been brief, merely amounting to an extension of the Veil to include an area of Earth which was under supernatural siege, so as to hide it from the primarily non-magical humans in the area. If her memory was right, the town's name had been … Briarwood. She smiled, her almond eyes crinkling further than ever at the edges. Briarwood was not too distant from where she and her eventual family had settled in Heatherfield either. She tried to recall if that had been on purpose, or if it had just been because Cassidy's family had still lived there, even after her untimely death.

Thinking of Cassidy brought back other memories, of the friendly red-head's eventual resurrection at the hands of her own inadvertent killer, their teammate Nerissa. _That_ thought led her to wondering if the altermere/twin Nerissa had created of Yan Lin, Mira, had lived her life to it's fullest with Eric Linden's Grandfather, Earl. Yan Lin chuckled, wondering if even she would have had the nerve to date her own granddaughter's sweety's kin, or if it was the transitory nature of an astral drop's existence which had given Mira such guts.

There was a sharp knock on the outer door of her Chambers, and Yan Lin rose and floated out of her Memory Room, then out to her door. She opened it, expecting to see her Senior Historian, Tibor, but instead found a most welcome collection of young women and their children.

Clare, Hay Lin, Irma, and Vida had brought their four young sons to visit with 'Grand-Yan' (as Kyle had dubbed her at the age of two,) to keep them out of trouble while the Rangers and Guardians consulted the Oracle about their teens. "Hey, Grandma," Hay Lin and Irma said when she'd opened the door the rest of the way, and both hugged her for a moment.

"My girls, how are you? And who are these handsome young men with you?" Yan Lin turned to each pair of mother and son, and they introduced themselves.

"This young hero-in-training you already know," Hay Lin Linden giggled, wrapping her arms around her son from behind. Kyle squirmed in mock embarrassment, grinning up at his 'Grand-Yan'.

"And growing as fast and as skinny as his mother, my great-grandson is," she observed, ruffling his hair.

"A.J. Thorn, at your service," the young strawberry-blond-haired boy said next, stepping forward and bowing like a courtier over Yan Lin's hand as he shook it. She raised her eyebrows, looking up at A.J.'s mother quizzically.

"Hi," Clare beamed, reeling her exuberant son back in. "I'm Clare. These two," and she pointed at Kyle and A.J., "just escaped fourth grade together."

"_Showoff_," Toby was hissing under his breath at A.J., who just stuck his tongue out at him. Toby's mother stepped up and shook the elder Air Guardian's hand.

"Hey, Missus Lin, I'm Vida Bly. Well, Vida _Rocca_ Bly, if you want the whole thing, former Pink Mystic Wind Ranger. It's an honor to meet you. I've only known your granddaughter and the other Guardians for a few hours, but I can already tell you taught them well, as our Mentor, Udonna did." She pulled her son into a headlock, giving him a noogie for good measure. "This young rascal's my younger son, Toby."

"_Gerroff, Mum,"_ he grumbled, then flashed the characteristic Bly smile at Yan Lin. "G'day, ma'am," he said, tipping an imaginary hat, then extending his hand to shake as his mother had.

"_Now who's showing off,"_ A.J. murmured, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes at his cousin. Yan Lin caught both their eyes, and winked.

Irma stepped forward at the last, her hands on her son's shoulders, and a teary smile lighting her face up. "And this, Grand-Yan," she uttered proudly, "is Martin Eric."

The elderly Chinese woman crouched down to be at eye level with young Martin, her eyes traveling over his half-familiar features, trying to place him. Her mind kept seeing features she knew shouldn't be on a child born from Irma's womb, unless … Looking up sharply at her granddaughter, Yan Lin was amazed to see the sappy smile Hay Lin was directing at her oldest friend and the five-year-old boy standing before her grandmother. Looking back at Martin, Yan Lin was amazed anew at the remarkable resemblance the young boy bore to her own son Chen, Hay Lin's father. The similarity was even more uncanny when Irma stepped back, leaving Martin alone before her, and he crossed one arm behind himself to grab the other's elbow, and started turning one foot on its toes while looking down in embarrassment, like he'd just been caught raiding the fortune cookies. Yan Lin smiled brightly at Martin, her ancient eyes and his young ones the exact same storm-cloud grey.

"Hello, great-grandson. It's wonderful to meet you, Martin." Yan Lin's eyes grew watery, and she held her arms out before her, waiting for the boy to make the next move. Martin looked uncertainly up at his mother, and Irma just nodded, smiling and crying at the same time. The child, reassured, ran into Yan Lin's arms, and the two hugged for an interminable while. Hay Lin and Irma embraced similarly, the former Water Guardian now crying openly with the proudest grin on her face, looking down on her son, her greatest treasure, and her foremost gift to the family she'd loved for as long as she'd known them.

Vida looked blankly at Clare, who was also teary-eyed, and asked "Okay, what am I missing here?"

Clare gave a great sniff, and wiped her eyes on her sky-blue sleeve. "Oh, V, they told me the story months ago, at one of those stuffy city functions where all us parents end up shoved off in a corner with our rowdier kids. Hay Lin's grandmother died the day Kyle was born. Her husband Eric died a few months later in a horrible car accident, at about the same time Irma's divorce was final from her nerdy high-school sweetheart, Martin. These girls have been friends since like Kindergarten, so they naturally helped each other cope with their imploding lives. Then when Hay Lin wanted to have another child, she found out she _couldn't,_ (Some nasty infection or other, she never said what.) and so Irma said she'd be Hay Lin's surrogate, since she wanted to be a mother just once, and bearing her best friend's baby was perfect, since she'd left men in general after Martin. So _this_ Martin is Hay Lin and Eric's son, just like his brother Kyle, _and_ Irma's, since she gave birth to him." Clare wiped her eyes dry again with her other sleeve, smiling at the united Lin-Linden-Lair family before them.

Irma composed herself, cleared her throat and took a reassuring hold on one of Hay Lin's hands. "We hate to impose on your good nature, Yan Lin, but could you keep track of these four for a little while? We're kinda needed in the Chamber of the Congregation." Clearing her throat again, she murmured quietly (knowing Yan Lin's Air-enhanced hearing would catch it,) _"If you can wear 'em down, they'll likely crash pretty easily, it was already past midnight when we left Heatherfield, and most of these four were already headed for some serious sack-time."_

Yan Lin smiled back at her granddaughter-in-all-but-blood, and nodded happily. "I think I can come up with something to keep such fine young lads busy for a little while. Come on boys, Grand-Yan has some snacks inside, and some old board games that could use a good workout." That said, she led the four boys back towards her Memory Chamber, where she kept some Earth games and toys handy for when the Guardians had visited with their children over the years.

Martin came running back out once, to embrace first Irma and then Hay Lin's legs tightly, then scampered back into Yan Lin's demesne with a happy "Bye, Mom! Bye, Mom!" The other two women laughed, then Vida spoke what they were all thinking.

"Well ladies, let's get back to the others. I _definitely_ want to be there when everything happens, and I _know_ the kids are anxious for whatever we're here for to be through." Turning to start the hike back to the Audience Chamber they'd appeared in, she looked over her shoulder at the pair of former Guardians. "All right, I know you brought us along the scenic route in hopes we'd tire the boys out again, but are there any shortcuts back? My legs haven't had this long a workout since I was an active Ranger last, which is more years than I'm willing to admit to at the moment."

Irma and Hay Lin shared a glance, then both Guardian's reached out and grabbed an arm on one of the Briarwood natives. "One shortcut, coming up!" Hay Lin said, her usual high spirits restored after seeing her Grandma so happy. She and Irma teletransported back to the Center of Candracar, delighting in the reuse of long-unutilized powers for what they were sure would be the last time for quite a while, if the Oracle was going to do what they were sure he would. Clare and Vida were pulled along into the green flash with twin 'EEEK!'s. Yan Lin's door shut quietly on it's own as they disappeared.

_Mystic_

The others meanwhile had been spending their time telling the Congregation of Candracar, and the still-shaken Queen Elyon of Meridian, about the progression of strange events their day had encompassed. The Congregation, who as a whole had only heard abbreviated and dry secondhand reports of these events, 'Ooooh'd and 'Aaaah'd appreciatively in all the right spots as they heard of the different teen's incidents firsthand at last. Iggy was chagrined to learn that many of the Congregation had witnessed his altercation in the alley 'live'. A chuckling Tibor consolingly told the young athlete that, as a Guardian's child, Iggy had been watched over the years for signs of magical potential.

"You mean you all knew about us all along?!" Iggy and Yvonne both grilled Tibor and the Oracle as one.

Himerish merely gave the pair another of his sagely smiles and waved a hand to encompass the entire group of Rangers, Guardians, and their teens. Clare and the others reappeared just as he said, "I've known about each of you as your elemental gifts became active." He pointed at several of them in turn. "When you were fixing a broken radio you'd forgotten to unplug, and didn't get hurt when you crossed the wrong wires." The others, all turning towards Will, were surprised to see she and the Oracle were both looking at Chip.

Singling out the former Water Guardian, Himerish continued, "The first time you went to summer camp, and spent the whole day in the lake without getting … Ah! I believe your father called it 'pruny fingers.' You also found a new friend that day, who I believe still lives in your son's room."

Irma smiled reminiscently, murmuring "Leafy," under her breath, referring to her pet turtle.

The Oracle turned next to Nick. "Bowen, do you remember that first fateful trip to Briarwood? When you stopped just outside town to tighten up a loose bolt on your … hmm … yes, motorcycle, and didn't wait for the engine to cool down before touching it." He beamed at them all, settling his gaze finally on the seven teens at the rear.

"Or the only child we haven't heard about this momentous day. Young Chloe, child of one Guardian, grandchild of another who, regardless of predilections, are both _exceptional_ wielders of their elements. You haven't told anyone else of what happened in your terrace garden tonight, have you?" he asked kindly.

Chloe hung her head, her cheeks flaming red in embarrassment. "N-no …" She looked guiltily at her mother and Aunt Elyon, the two women she _least_ wanted to be telling this to, and adversely, the two women she knew would want to hear about this the _most._ Cordelia stepped up next to her and grabbed her hand, ensuring them some privacy for what she did next.

"_Chlo, what's wrong?"_ she asked telepathically._ "Obviously he knows, and it doesn't seem to bother him, so it shouldn't bother the 'rents. I mean so what if we …"_

"_It matters to me!"_ Chloe answered, petrified. "_Goddess, how in the world did I get here, to this, show-and-telling before the Oracle and the Congregation like some bad kid in church …"_ Her inner voice was rising in panic as she locked eyes with Cordelia. The platinum-haired girl shook Chloe a couple times by the shoulders, telepathically telling her to calm down, take a couple deep breaths, anything, but Chloe's state just worsened, and she started hyperventilating.

In desperation, Cordy did the only thing she could think of; she locked lips with Chloe, catching the golden-haired cheerleader completely unawares, along with all their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their new friends and _their _parents. On the plus side, Chloe stopped panicking. On the minus side, nearly everyone else, including several members of the Congregation, _started._

Chloe was still looking in the right direction to see both their mothers' faces. _"Dee? I think our mothers both just had elephant-sized kittens …"_ The two girls' eyes met briefly one more time before they both turned to their moms, ready to face the music. Surprisingly, Cornelia and Elyon were remarkably fine with things between their daughters, once they got over the shock. It was the 'getting over' part that the C-girls weren't sure they'd survive.

"And just how long has _this_ been going on?" Cornelia demanded, while Elyon looked like she was fighting off a panic attack of her own.

Cordy actually looked at her watch, and said with an almost-straight face, "About an hour, Aunt C. Why?"

Before the lithe investor could do anything to her daughter, Elyon scrambled forward and grabbed both girls. "If this is what the Oracle was talking about, why didn't you two just speak up earlier? I mean, look at the Congregation; they're completely nuts now." Turning with the two girls, she found the three of them facing Himerish, Hay Lin, and a just-arriving and out of breath Lucain.

"Or … Oracle!" the young Keeper of the Aurameres panted, coming to a halt before the five. "The Aurameres are all fluctuating! And the Green one …" his voice died away upon sight of Elyon, who looked just as shocked to see him as she had at her daughter's display moments before.

"Lucain? But … but what are you doing here?" Hay Lin voiced the question that was trying to scream out from Elyon's frozen heart.

"What am I …? Hay Lin, Air Guardian?! What are _you_ …" he faltered, as he noticed that the other Guardians, as well as several other unexpected guests, were all packed into the Audience Chamber. "All of you … here …" He turned back to the Oracle, completely at a loss. "What have I missed?"

"Oh, nothing. Just the Oracle 'fessing up to being a pervy girl-watcher, that's all. Oh, yeah, and your daughter coming out of the closet," Irma drawled, as she stepped back to her lifemate's side. Hay Lin giggled as she added "And apparently, cats really DO have nine lives, huh, Luc?"

Cordelia was just as stunned as her mother at seeing Lucain there. "Poppa? But, _HOW_?" Her eyes were threatening to wash right out of her head from the backlog of tears she was fighting. Chloe knew exactly what was going through her best friend's head. As far as all the Guardians, Elyon, and the various kids had known, Lucain had died in a fall off a cliff, while stopping an assassin's bolt from hitting Elyon. That had been nearly a year ago. All of the Heatherfield residents had been visiting Meridian for the summer, and had witnessed everything. Caleb had captured the assassin personally, who had turned out to be the former Knight of Vengeance, Frost, now a pitiful wastrel, who unfortunately still wielded a steady crossbow, and an abiding hatred of Queen Elyon and the Guardians.

Now, the former Royal Consort and current Keeper of the Aurameres stared into the last eyes he'd seen as a mortal, and wished his species could cry as humans did; he could feel a horrible tightness all around his heart, matching the pressure behind his eyes, as he returned Elyon's haunted stare.

"Luc … Oh, Luc, …" the Queen of Meridian, still wearing one of her more formal gowns from her interrupted daily audience with her subjects, forgot all decorum as she threw her arms around her lover's neck, sobbing openly in extremis. Both were aware of Cordelia's arms wrapping around them as they sank to the floor. The other Guardians and their kids slowly encircled them, along with Himerish and Tibor.

The Rangers stood off to one side, reflecting on just how momentous the reunion they were witnessing was. Vida and Maddie empathized with Cordelia especially, having lost their factory-worker father to lung cancer the year before they were chosen to join the Mystic Force.

Ever-practical Caleb broke up the bittersweet reunion first. "Oracle, what do we do about Phobos?"

"The solution is right before you," Himerish answered, gesturing at the two sets of teens, Heatherfield and Briarwood. "Your new Guardians merely await the Heart of Candracar's light." He motioned Will to step forward. "If you please, Heartkeeper."

Will wasn't the only one to notice the different title the Oracle had called her by, one the Guardians had heard used for Yan Lin years before. Walking to the center of the group of teens, Will drew the Heart of Candracar from her sweatshirt pocket, and closed her eyes. Her feet slowly left the floor as she hovered up several inches, and opened herself up to her connection with the powerful jewel to allow it to direct her to the new Heartwielder. Turning slowly in place, she felt the Heart start to tug her in one direction, then abruptly reverse it's pull, forcing her to look almost completely backward over her left shoulder when she made herself open her eyes.

There stood Troy Thorn, confirming her personal theory, his arm draped protectively over Mallory's shoulders. As Will settled to the ground again and advanced towards the policeman's redheaded son, something registered. _HE_ hadn't moved from his brother's side; _MAL_ had crossed the space behind Will while her eyes were closed, which the Heart had tracked! Her case of nerves returned full-force from dinner.

Noticing her distress, Taranee sent encouragingly, _"Come on, Will. What else have we been raising them for all these years?"_

"_Yeah,"_ Hay Lin added to the mental conference. _"You already know she'll be a great leader; she's just like you, and she's already head of the cheerleaders, so you know she's got practice …"_

"_Please, Will,"_ Cornelia interjected, cutting Hay Lin's threatening ramble off before it could gather momentum.

"_Besides, it's time for the next generation to step forward and fight evil in those smashing tights."_ Irma gave Will a wink when she looked at her best friend. _"It certainly wouldn't do you much good to rejoin the ranks, Miss Varicose Veins Twenty-Twenty-Seven."_

"_HEY!"_ Will returned, stung into action by Irma's acerbic barb, little knowing that was precisely its point.

Turning back to her daughter, Will held out the Heart to her, sudden tears of pride stinging her eyes. Mallory took the great gem gingerly, remembering her last inadvertent encounter with its power. Meeting her mother's gaze, she gave a brave nod, knowing what was being entrusted to her. "Go on, baby, you know what to do," Will said quietly, letting the cord of the amulet sluice through her fingers for what she was sure would be the last time, then stepped back out of the circle of teens.

Mallory raised the Heart of Candracar to eye level, looking into its depths for a possible sign of what the future would be like after this moment. For a second, she was sure the Heart twinkled reassuringly at her, lightening her spirits. Looking one last time at all her friends, old and new, around her, she cleared her throat, and uttered the words that would forever write their destinies together.

"Guardians, UNITE!" The Heart of Candracar emitted a flash of pure white light, then released six orbs of energy, minute forms of the great Aurameres which floated in a nearby chamber, and which made all these things possible. The pink orb settled over Mallory Olsen's heart, and she welcomed it into her body like a missing part of her soul. She was immediately surrounded by a wash of pink light which lifted her up in the air, and wrapped her up as if in a cocoon, preparing her for transformation.

The blue Micromere swirled over to Yvonne Russell, washing over her with a shower of light reminiscent of the waves of the ocean just outside Heatherfield. Immersed in a cocoon the color of her denim jacket, the girl from Briarwood spun slowly in midair.

Sampson Rocca was at the center of a cyclone of grey energy. He spun slowly upwards, his envelope of altering power growing beyond all proportion in comparison with the girls'.

Trip's yellow cocoon was similarly enormous. Where Sam's seemed almost leisurely in activity, Troy Thorn's was frenetic in the extreme, spiraling faster and faster till it seemed to be whirring like a sunlit top in midair.

Red light poured from the roiling sphere around Ignatius Cook like a slow-motion movie of the setting sun, the pink-tinged clouds which flowed softly through the Temple of Candracar heightening the illusion.

The green Micromere settled into Chloe Hale like a seed into the welcoming earth, lighting up her features with its verdant light. Her cocoon seemed to emerge from her before enclosing the golden-haired girl in its glowing folds, which dappled the walls nearest her in a smattering of light like the sun through new-grown leaves.

In another flash of white light, all six energy nexuses burst open, allowing their occupants to spread their wings and settle gracefully to the ground before the Congregation and their families. There were remarkably few changes from the uniforms of the three female Guardians, with the exception of a predominance of their elements' color staying present.

Most of Mallory's outfit was neon pink, cut similarly to her mother's uniform, but where light and dark greens had covered large swaths of Will's Guardian clothes, most of Mal's tights were a blinding electric blue striped with violet, as if all the colors of lightning were vying for dominance across her newly-matured body. Her frame had garnered a good six inches, her curves had definitely made their presence known from their adolescent shyness, and her auburn hair, which had barely brushed her shoulders in a limp pageboy cut, now swept from her head like a gladiator's crest, standing out straight through the center all the way to where it hung halfway down her back.

Yvonne's uniform was as similar to Irma's, with teal replacing every last sign of pink, and her wings more resembled the fins of a flying fish. Like Mallory, her physique had been considerably advanced, but where Mal had garnered more height, Yvonne's frame had sprouted curves to rival the most developed swimsuit model. Vida and Hay Lin could swear they heard the new Water Guardian muttering about 'personal flotation devices', and Nick looked slightly faint, dreading what such a preview boded for his daughter.

Chloe's suit, cut along the same lines as Cornelia's, seemed to be formed almost entirely of leaves, and rustled when she moved. Her golden hair also seemed to have spontaneously sprouted fresh growth, tiny leaves and green and blue flowers that matched her two different-colored eyes peeking out of her waist-length tangled tresses. She hadn't grown out even half as much as Mallory, but had shot up over a foot in height, surpassing her statuesque mother and father both.

The new look of the three female Guardians was interesting enough, but everybody was turning next to look at the three new male Guardians, as no member of the Congregation could readily recall when they'd last had men in the ranks.

The three young men were dressed similarly, with plain black breeches and boots, and open-backed tunics in their respective elements' colors, with black filigree tracing the Auramere that matched them across their shirts. Where the girl's wings were fairylike, the boys each had great angelic feathered pinions arcing from their backs, and their muscles had increased, especially across the chest and shoulders, to reflect the added control their new appendages would require.

Sampson Rocca now seemed very much a god among men, his already considerable frame having grown almost a foot in height and shoulder-breadth. His wings were a stormcloud grey that rustled softly as if in an invisible breeze, and his already shaggy hair was now a veritable mane that streamed down past his wing-joints.

Trip's transformation was the most pronounced. He'd been as skinny as his father beforehand, strong enough but in a wiry way that never showed. Now, his considerably larger frame fairly rippled with supple layers of toned flesh, making it look as if someone had transplanted Trip's hair onto Sam's body. His wings shimmered with a pale golden light, and his eyes had trouble looking at anything for long. At least until he sought out the newly-transformed Mallory.

Iggy's was the most visually disturbing change. Gone was the lanky young basketball player; in his place stood an ebony-skinned giant with fiery red wings, dred-locked hair splayed out around his face, and a faint crimson glow lighting his bespectacled eyes.

"_**SIX?!"**_ Irma, Will and the other former Guardians all rounded on the Oracle, who actually looked taken aback by the sheer fury in the women's eyes.

"When I think of the grief that could have been avoided … if Elyon had been one of us from day one …" Cornelia continued in a voice raw from her joining in the group yell.

"Ladies, please, if you'll wait a moment …" Lucain interposed himself between the Oracle and the furious former Guardians. "Himerish, Tibor, I think the Guardians' parents need to see what transpired earlier today in the Auramere Chamber. Don't you?"

The five women were all floored in their tracks, as much by being 'the parents' instead of 'the Guardians', as they were at the thought of something _else_ happening to their kids.

"Hmm, it occurs to me, they might take your word over either of ours at the moment," Tibor said to Lucain.

Lucain took in the barely-contained rage still evident on Cornelia's face, and nodded. "As you wish, Historian. By your leave, Oracle?" he continued, walking to the edge of the viewing pool centered in the room. Himerish merely nodded in bemusement at the situation.

Will found Matt was standing right behind her. His fingers sought her grasp in a desperate fight against the dread that had suddenly settled in his stomach. When she turned to face him, all he could say, while pointing surreptitiously back at all three of the young men, was _"Shagon,"_ under his breath to her.

Taranee, picking up on his worry, just sent back to him,_ "It's uncanny, that's for sure. But who's to say Nerissa's idea for your alter-ego didn't come from old records of male Guardian's appearances, eh?"_

Many members of the Congregation seemed just as unnerved as Matt by the boys' metamorphosis, including Halinor, the former Fire Guardian who'd protected the Multiverse alongside Yan Lin. She'd been amongst the number briefly captured by Shagon and the other Knights of Destruction during Nerissa's grab for power. Himerish, Tibor, and Lucain's great-aunt Luba (whom he'd succeeded as Keeper of the Aurameres) had also been in that group.

Lucain meanwhile was calling forth his memory of the sixth Auramere's appearance. At his mental prompt, the great pool started to project it for all to see. At first, the riled-up former Guardians and Congregation members were unaware of the newest occurrence, but with a further telepathic prompt, Lucain turned the pool's image into a three-dimensional image right in the middle of the room. Several gasps were audible in the sudden silence, as all assembled found themselves watching the five Aurameres' electrical dance, and the unprecedented appearance in their midst of the new yellow orb.

Clare the sorceress, wide-read Taranee, and uber-geeks Chip and his son Trip all traded shocked looks of recognition at the symbol revolving in the center of the new Auramere. _"Time?"_ The four all uttered in unison.

"Aye, Time," Tibor returned, stepping up to Lucain's side.

"But is time an element?" Trip asked, his newly-muscular arm once again around Mallory's shoulders. Even in their now-enhanced forms, they were still at a similar height difference. Standing like that, Mal had the reassuring feeling she and the new team of Guardians could take on anything.

"Not in any normal sense," the Oracle responded, also stepping into the center of the group. "But I suspect for all intents and purposes, you'll be able to control time, and your movement through it, as ably as your companions handle their individual elements."

"OUCH!" Chloe cried, and everyone whirled to see what the matter was. She was holding a hand to the back of her head, and looking murderously at Dee.

Poor Cordelia was standing just out of arms' reach, her eyes completely round in shock, and her hands cradling one of the tiny blue flowers from her girlfriend's hair. "Oh my god, Chlo, I … am … SO … sorry."

That's when the girl's parents noticed that the flower was _bleeding._ Dee looked around at Cornelia, and just started babbling in horror. "I'm sorry; I'm _so_ sorry, I was checking one of her flowers out, 'cause their just …, you know, and my fingers got tangled by her hair, and when I pulled away, the flower popped out, and … and …" She held the tiny bloom up, it's petals already visibly wilting. "Oh, oh god, is there any way to put it back?" she pleaded, looking frantically to each of the three Earth-powered heroes.

Cornelia and Elyon both rushed forward to console their respective daughters, and Zander crossed to Dee as well, to more closely examine the fast-fading plant.

"It won't go back," Cornelia said, after checking the back of Chloe's head for where the flower had been plucked from. "The hole's already closed. Thank Candracar for fast healing, huh?"

"Awww …" Cordelia stroked the petals of the dying plant. She had cupped a hand under the still-leaking stem, trying to save it as long as possible.

Zander watched as a tear rolled down Cordy's cheek and dripped into the cup of the flower. The petals seemed to revive for a few seconds, then started to droop again. "Haing on a mo …" he said, raising his Morpher in wand mode.

"Zander Nicholas Bly, what are you doing?" Vida demanded as he waved his wand over the fragile bloom.

"Saiving a loife, luv," was his only response. The stem of the flower stopped bleeding, and grew to wrap around Cordelia's wrist, then the end joined seamlessly back up to the base of the cup, sealing together into a living bracelet around her left wrist. "Jest one moare thing …" He pulled a pen-knife from a back pocket, grabbed her other hand, and poked her thumb.

"Hey!" Chloe's cry echoed with Cordy's as she started forward to save her friend. Cornelia held her back, clued in by the flower itself just what Zander was doing.

"_Listen to it, honey,"_ she whispered to Chloe, as the Green Mystic Ranger squeezed a drop of blood from Cordelia's thumb into the flower from Chloe's hair. The tiny blue bloom sucked in the fresh nutrient and changed hue to a deep violet. Chloe had to fight back a giggle at the tiny _'Aaaah' _she heard from the plant.

"_Wow,"_ Cordy breathed, admiring her new living amulet, a tiny part of her best friend.

"Jest remembeh tou give it some liquid each daiy, preferably something living," Zander instructed. "By the by, since it's part of her, you'ill always be able tou tell if something's happened tou her." He added the last in a friendly wave in Chloe's direction. The two girl's eyes met, and they had to look away, blushing.

"Hey, I thought it was _our_ job to rescue damsels in distress, now," a new deep voice broke into the scene. Everybody started looking around for who had said that, including most of the new Guardians. Then Lucain pointed in shock at Iggy, standing stock-still between his parents. Taranee and Nigel both took a step back away to look at their son anew in wonder.

"I-Iggy, dear, w-was that … _you?"_ Taranee gulped. Nigel took her hand as she asked.

"Yeah, mom. I guess it was," Iggy answered, his new voice rumbling out from deep in his barrel chest sheepishly.

"Wow! Look out, Darth Vader! There's a new evil voice in town," Irma chuckled.

"Well, this sucks," Trip countered. "All this," and he waved his unoccupied arm down his ripped abs and sculpted pecs, "and I still sound like I'm ten." Everybody laughed when his voice cracked on the last word, and Mallory reached around and pulled him into a kiss.

"Yeah, but think about your consolation prize, Mister Thorn. You're still dating the school hottie," she told him with a grin.

At that, both sets of parents paled, and Will charged forward again. "Aahh, baby? I think it's time you turned everybody back to normal." _'At least until the sea of raging hormones has ebbed,'_ she thought, reminded of one of Irma's favorite lines.

"Just a sec, Mizz Olsen," Sam piped up. His voice had deepened as well, though nowhere half as far as Iggy's. "I gotta try one thing first, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, he spread his wings wide, and with one leap from his powerful legs, he was airborne. The first downdraft from his great grey feathered limbs cleared the ever-present cloud wisps from the Audience chamber floor, and the next sent him rocketing up and around the room in a sweeping arc.

Attempting some of the moves he'd tried while out-of-body, he was amazed at the flight techniques he remembered from watching birds over the years. Doing another wingover, he aimed to land in front of the Oracle again, but overshot and clipped his leg trying to correct, and ended up tumbling through the scattering crowd of Congregation members end-over-end straight into the viewing pool. Vida and Maddie fished him out, while the Oracle pulled the sash from his waist and offered it to Sam to dry of with.

"Hold it another minute," Irma interrupted, when Sam said to Mallory he'd be easier to dry off if there was less _of_ him. Whipping Iggy's glasses from his face, Irma used them to take a better look at the flower around Cordy's wrist, then examined one still growing in Chloe's hair.

"Well, Oh Great Detective?" Will teased, knowing that if it hadn't been for their gifts, Irma would have followed her father (and grandfather, and great-great-uncle,) onto the Heatherfield Police force. Irma just finished her examination, glared at her best friend, and turned back to face Chloe and her parents.

"Hey, Corny. Were you pregnant _before_ Caleb was changed into a Murmurer?"

The ruby blush that flooded the couple's cheeks was answer enough for all. Even some of the Congregation of Candracar joined in the chuckling, and Hay Lin distinctly heard Halinor whispering to Tibor _"Well, better her than Kadma."_

"Soooo," Mallory started, after she had transformed the six back into their everyday selves, and turned back towards the C-girls. "What _did_ happen on your terrace, Chlo?"

Chloe tore her eyes away from Iggy, who was muttering "Testing, testing … ah, _man_ …" and grinned sheepishly.

"Well, we kissed, obviously, but that wasn't how it started …"

_Mystic_

_The kitchen was finally squared away, and the two blonde girls had retreated to their shared room to fix make-up and hair quickly before saying goodbye to the new resident dreamboat, Sam Rocca. Cordy had helped run a brush through a nasty tangle in Chloe's hair, and the two were talking tactics._

"_Mallory's already scored points with Trip, I heard Uncle Matt yelling at them out on the landing after he caught them kissing in the stairwell."_

"_Well, kisses it is," Chloe countered, tossing the hairbrush onto her bed and swishing her hair around with one hand, just like her mother always did. "Rock, paper, scissors, or do we corner him alphabetically?"_

"_HEY!" Cordy grumbled; her best friend was always trying to get her to fall for that. Then a worse thought crossed her mind. "Oh god, what if he's a horrible kisser? Oh god, what if WE'RE horrible?"_

_Chloe looked terror-stricken for two seconds, then yelped, "Quick, practice kiss. Pretend I'm Sam." Cordelia could _see_ Chloe imagining Sam standing where she was, and realized they had to hurry, they could hear the other families going out to their cars down on the ground floor._

_Squaring her shoulders to look more manly, Chloe stepped up to Dee and leaned in, their lips meeting in a featherlight brush, which Cordy deepened by tilting up onto her toes, to make up their height difference._

_Having only ever watched kissing in movies before, (there was NO way they were gonna try to collect pointers spying on their parents or aunts and uncles,) the pair didn't know how much pressure was enough, or too much. But within seconds, both realized, they were not about to waste trial and error on Sam Rocca, no matter HOW hunky he looked in his mesh tee. Suddenly, the kiss deepened of its own accord, and all the friendly, sisterly, platonic feelings were gone. A white-hot blaze of emotion surged through the two young women, catalyzed by their kiss and exponentially heightened between their already-close relationship and the new burst of telepathic rapport granted by their fresh intimacy. The kiss became about them, what they meant to each other, and nothing and nobody else could ever beat that._

_Pulling apart at last for sheer unfortunate physical need for oxygen, the two girls were flabbergasted to discover every plant in Chloe's tiny window garden was several inches taller, and in full bloom. "Did we do that?" they said simultaneously, then fell back into each other's arms giggling for several seconds._

"_Oh, god, the others," Cordy gasped at last, straightening up and grabbing Chloe's hand._

_The golden-haired girl just smiled, and said "What others?"_

_Torn between newfound adoration and the moment's exasperation, Cordelia looked back at her best friend. Loath to tear the dreamy look from Chloe's face as she was, nevertheless she forged on. "C'mon, Chlo, everyone else is downstairs saying goodnight. We oughtta go before they think we fell in."_

"_Yeah," Chloe conceded. With a squeeze of Dee's hand she added, "Didn't we, though?" At that, the two raced for the elevator, taking advantage of the four-floor ride down for one more gentle kiss, just for them._


	7. Training Day Part 1

M. Y. S. T. I. C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.

Chapter Seven

"Training Day"

Part 1, the Morning

The next day dawned clean and clear through Chloe Hale's eastern-facing window. She slowly woke as sunlight crept up her body. Stretching each muscle inch by luxuriating inch, she put off opening her eyes until her whole body had been sun-touched. Just as she rolled to sit up and climb out of bed, her eyes still shut, a shadow fell over her face.

Chloe's eyes snapped open, to find another face inches from hers. Shrieking, she scrambled backwards and bonked herself with the headboard.

The silhouetted figure laughed and said, "Your mom said you'd wake up with the sun. C'mon, sleepyhead, our Royal Highnesses have been here for almost an hour. I've even managed to sneak in a shower, waiting for you to rejoin the land of the living."

"Cordelia Eleanor Brown, you better hope your parents are willing to try for more kids, 'cause Meridian is about to be short one princess," Chloe hissed, rubbing the back of her head. Her new bump was on the same spot the purple flower she now spotted on Cordy's wrist had been plucked from, too.

Cordelia rounded her eyes and pretended to pout. "Cordy is used to death threats, miss." She blinked once in slow motion and twitched. "Cordy gets them three times a day at home."

"You'd be surprised what you could live through," Chloe retorted out of habit. The two had played that particular game for years: one girl using a favorite line from her favorite movies, and the other coming out with a snappy retort from her favorites. In this case, the Harry Potter films and Disney's Aladdin movies. Chloe huffed the bangs out of her eyes, and looked up at Dee. "Now that you've got me awake, ya gonna let me get out of bed?"

"Naaah," Cordy said with a smirk. "I figure I've gotcha just where I want you." She leaned over and murmured huskily, "I've got a secret. I found out I'm into older women." She looked up and down Chloe's nightie-clad figure appraisingly, but spoiled the effect when she giggled afterwards. Chloe felt she more than made up for it though by closing the remaining distance for a kiss.

It was a short-lived one, unfortunately. "Faugh, morning breath," Dee sputtered, straightening up. "Gag, Chlo, whatidja _eat_ last last night?"

"You," Chloe answered with a perfectly straight face.

"_WHAT?!"_ Cornelia, who'd been passing by in the hall, roared. She burst in the door of her daughter's room, looking like she was halfway to a heart attack. "I thought you said you two just _kissed?"_ she charged.

Chloe blushed as pink as her sheets. "Oh, god, Mom, I did. And we did. Just _kiss,_ I mean. Sheesh!" She looked up at Cordy, still flushed. Dee was just as colorful. "But that _was_ the last thing I did last night: kiss Cordy goodbye when we left Candracar."

Cornelia sank down onto the corner of her daughter's bed, slowly calming down. "I don't know how long I'm going to take to get used to this, girls. I mean, none of us was prepared for Irma and Hay Lin either, even them, but it was so quick, and so natural to see them together all the time anyway, we all just kinda _not thought_ about the two of them tangling sheets, if ya know what I mean." She looked a little nervous still, but she had a weird smile on her face as she recalled the day shortly after Martin's birth when the pair had 'come out' to the other Guardians.

"No, Mom, spell it out for us," Chloe said sarcastically, sitting up and climbing out of bed, only to end up face-to-face with Cordy all over again, who hopped up onto the stool in front of Chloe's desk.

"Oh, come off it ,Cornelia," the former Earth Guardian's best friend said from the doorway, where she'd been listening to the last couple moments since Cornelia had charged in. "If one of us had managed to have a son instead, you know we'd be thrilled if they started dating." Queen Elyon, looking far less regal in the jogging suit she kept at Cornelia's for her increasingly _in_frequent off-day visits to Heatherfield, just swept in and embraced Chloe.

"Oh, yes, Elly, with _dating _I'm perfectly fine. It's when the talk turns to …" Cornelia actually silently spelled out sex in Pig-Latin, making the other three gawk at her, "that I start to wish we could just reintroduce chastity belts, or something." She perked up for a moment. "Hey, you guys still live at, like, medieval level technology, for the most part. Do you still have those?"

"NO!" the pair of Meridianites cried in a relieved tone together, while Chloe just yelped "Mom!"

"Besides totally unclean, one: no Christian repression, and two: my brother apparently encouraged young marriages," Elyon said with a closed look on her face. She'd spent several years right after ascending the throne crossing back to Earth to complete high school, and studied everything she could on the end of the Dark Ages in an effort to improve daily life in Metamoor for her people. She brightened at something she'd just reminded herself of, though. "OH! Remind me to tell Caleb later. Aldarn _finally_ married Alanna." Cornelia and the two teens all squealed in delight, Chloe giving Dee a spin on her drafting stool as the three all crowed "YES!"

"And he didn't tell us beforehand why?" Cornelia asked, thinking of the green-skinned smith (and former rebel) who'd been Caleb's best man at _their _wedding.

Elyon, seeing her next question ahead of time, answered that instead. "Because Vathek stood up for him. Well actually," she continued with a mock-evil grin, "Vathek stood _behind_ him, to make sure Aldarn wouldn't run out at the last second. Again." The four women all laughed, remembering the first time Elyon had tried to wed her head cook to Caleb's childhood friend.

"Alright, honey," Cornelia said to her daughter, once they'd all recovered from their mirth. "You've had some sun, now go get watered before you wilt on us." She pushed Chloe towards the bathroom.

"And brush your teeth!" Cordy yelled after her. Chloe just reappeared in the doorway, hauled off her nightie, and whipped it at her girlfriend's head.

Elyon, noticing Chloe's profile as she ran back to the bathroom in her undies, just shook her head. Looking down at her own nearly-flat chest, she muttered "Poor girl," recalling Chloe's transformed stature from last night. Barring maternity (like Hay Lin) or surgery, Guardians tended to grow into those previews pretty accurately.

Cordy waited for the sound of running water, then spun on her mother and aunt. "So, we still having her party?" The two women met gazes, and Cornelia smiled.

"Of course," she answered. "We'll just have a smaller party, that's all. Right after practice, at the dojo."

"Practice?" Elyon and Cordy both asked.

"Yeah," Cornelia continued. "You both remember that housing project Lillian led the kibosh on?" At their nods, she added, "Well, it's changed hands three times since then, and the current owners don't intend to do any more construction until all the old stuff's cleared out anyway. Since it's scheduled for bulldozing in a couple weeks, we figured it's the perfect spot for the new Guardians to practice with their powers before they head off to save Meridian."

"How do you know so much about this place?" Elyon asked, since the long-delayed new subdivision was a stone's throw from her childhood home on the north side of town.

"Who do you think bought it the fourth time?" Cornelia grinned, the proverbial canary-catching cat. The other two gawked, then grinned back. "Now come on, I've got some stuff to take care of at the office before this afternoon, so I'll leave you two to handle the party details. And don't worry," she added, looking at Cordelia, "I'll bet the Guardians have these pinheads beat before your birthday, so we can have _your_ party safely back at the palace, instead, Princess." With that, she went to find her keys from wherever the cats had hidden them again overnight to head in to work.

Mystic

Troy and Sam woke up within seconds of each other, whether from the uncanny connection the two had always shared, or the noise their younger brothers were making in the next room was a moot point. Abruptly returned to the conscious world, the two just rolled in their beds until they faced each other, and Trip uttered, "Another day in Thorn-world, eh?"

Sam grinned back. "Man, if it's _half_ as weird as Planet Bly's been since you guys moved, we're in for it. So, you ready for practice after lunch?"

Trip mused for a second, then returned his brother's smile. "I guess I am. You?"

"_Beyond_ ready. 'Specially since I realized that all those stories of Mom's were _real_. Now I got a reason for watching birds all these years, huh?" his grin widened, and his eyes got a swirling pattern behind them, like clouds funneling.

"Just as long as we don't run past six o'clock," Trip added.

"Why's that?"

"Chloe's B-day party at her dad's dojo. It was gonna be at the palace in Meridian City apparently, but this Phobos guy nixed that. Oh, that reminds me, Mal sent me a link for old newsbytes on Guardian exploits over the years. Well, Earth exploits, anyways. She told me all we have to do is ask anybody in Meridian, and we'll get more than our fill of stories of their adventures on Metamoor."

"Is that where we're going to practice?" Sam asked, getting up and starting his morning calisthenics.

"Gods, why do you do that?" his brother interjected, after losing count of Sam's crunches.

"How … else … am I … gonna … get … the cute … girls _(forty-two)_ to … notice … me?" Six crunches later he stopped to let his breathing return to normal, then started doing push-ups martial-arts style, on his knuckles.

"Somehow, I don't think you'll get ignored," Trip drawled, marveling anew at his brother's prowess, as Sam went to one-armed (right) push-ups after twenty, and fifteen later, switched to his left in a hopping motion that left him suspended in midair for several seconds on just his toes.

"You … never … answered … my … question … y'know," Sam said as he finished.

"Which question?" trip asked, totally lost conversationally.

"Where are we going for training?"

"OH! Oh, uh, someone mentioned this cave they used to go to all the time on Shell Beach for training and to use portals so people wouldn't find them. So, there, maybe."

"The beach, huh? That'd be cool. Lots of fresh air, rocks and sand, the lake for Yvie, we could build a fire for Iggy to work from, and you'll have six hours to kill finding out how your powers work, so all of us have something, I guess …" Sam went quiet thinking of exercises they could try for each of the new Guardian's powers. "Hey! We need to hit a Smarty-Mart, Trip. We're gonna need some supplies from sporting goods." He rubbed his hands together, fresh ideas flowing through his mind as he remembered that he was probably the only one with any practice flying so far, and then started thinking of flight training techniques for all six as well.

Trip groaned, seeing his brother's eyes start to swirl again as Sam thought of new ways to torture Trip and their teammates. "Dude, take it easy on us, okay? We're ALL new at this, so nothing harsh for the first week at least, huh?" Sam rounded on him at that, his expression incredulous.

"Man, don't you get it? We've been picked to fight a _WAR,_ Trip. We may not get to the end of _today_ before we're saving each other's bacon from becoming this Phobos creep's new favorite flavor of pork rinds. I seriously doubt _anything_ I can come up with to train us can be considered _too harsh_ at this point. Your girl, her folks, and all their friends have been at this for most of their _lives,_ and you saw the edge even _flower-girl_ has. Now, you ready for practice, or not?"

Trip swallowed each resentful statement as it occurred to him after his brother's speech, reflecting that it was probably the longest Sam had ever spoken. He was the epitome of the 'strong, silent type'. To be lectured thus by Sam of all people was as much a shock as the subject itself. Nodding in resolved answer, Trip found himself wondering how their normally happy-go-lucky cousin Yvie was taking this very matter.

Mystic

Yvonne Russell was dead to the world. Mallory had given up trying to wake her, and had settled in to have a Heartwielder-to-heart with her electric guitar.

"Seriously, Sam, if I'd known about this wire, I'd have repaired you weeks ago. Why didn't you just tell my mom?" She was recoiling a new loop of wire around a contact between the voicebox and the amplifier jack-in.

"Quite honestly, Miss Mallory, the less your mother hears from me, the happier she seems," the instrument answered in a surprisingly genteel Southern accent muffled by Mallory's hand. "Remember how she lectured when you over-tightened my strings for that Japanese song? I heard her telling Tina I'd end up in the next yard sale if you were just going to mistreat me."

It took Mallory a minute to place the name. "Tina … wait, she complained about you … to the _toaster?!"_ Mal finished securing the wire and snapped the housing shut. "That should do it. Now, whaddiya say we give Miss Sleeping Beauty there a rousing wake-up chorus?" Even as she reached for the amplifier's jack, Sam protested.

"Please, Miss Mallory. If you don't mind, I'd rather return to my case for a rest after your most considerate repair-work. If I may, you haven't had Amelia down in months, and I know it would make your mother happy to hear you practicing again. You _are_ good, and, might I say, with the right parts, Miss Lia could join our conversations, as well?"

Mallory looked down at her guitar - actually an old converted mandolin – which she'd called 'Sam' after its spade-shape. "I don't believe it. My axe is in love with my fiddle." With a grin, she slid Sam back into his softcase, and stood to retrieve her violin from the shelf over her vanity.

One of the replica Stradivarius that had swamped E-bay after some scientists had forensiced out what made the originals so awesome, her violin had seen years of misuse in an elementary school music program before her dad and his friends had 'rescued' it. To this day, she harbored the belief that Aunt Lillian's cat Napoleon refused to speak to her because it was supposedly strung with _real_ catgut. (He'd wanted to give it a burial after its 'liberation'.) Lazing on its shelf for the past several months since Matt had given Sam to his daughter for her last birthday, 'Amelia Airheart' (So named for the pair of winged A's someone had painted on the soundbox.) had before then been Mallory's key to artistic freedom.

Running her fingers down the strings of her uncased friend, she plucked each once to check for tone, then rosined the bow up and drew it a couple times to warm it up. Seized with a sudden wicked impulse, she grabbed her battered battery-powered karaoke microphone off the shelf too, flicked it on, and tucked it into her shirtcollar before chinning Amelia and starting into the old military wake-up song, Reveille.

Yvie's eyes had snapped open by the third downnote. Mallory's parents had come stumbling down the hallway at the same time she switched stanzas. By the time Mal had finished, Elyon, Cordy, and a still-dripping Chloe had stormed across from the Hale's apartment crying bloody murder, shortly followed by the Olsen's downstairs neighbor, Parker.

"Honestly, Olsen, if you can't control your kid, pack her off to summer camp like the rest of civilization. She already knows the songs apparently."

"We're really sorry, Mister Hardy. It'll never happen again, I promise." Whirling on his precocious daughter, Matt asked with an edge to his voice, "Will it, Mallory Susan?" Cordy giggled, Elyon and Will (lurking just out of the doorway's view while trying to help Chloe hang on to her towel) glared dangerously at Mal, and Yvonne just smiled back at the irate neighbor.

Parker noticed the new face in the apartment, and glared harder at Matt. "Oh God, another one. I thought you were a _real_ musician, Olsen, not some boy-band groupie magnet. Geez …" With that, their neighbor stalked back to the stairwell, and with one last scathing look over his shoulder, went back downstairs, shaking his head.

Cordelia, watching from the doorway, concentrated hard for a moment. "Okay, he's gone, Chlo. It's safe to get back …" Her voice fizzled out as she turned to face the trio of women, only to find Uncle Matt determinedly facing the wall _away_ from Chloe and the others. Mallory was standing in her bedroom doorway, her old violin dangling limply from her hand while she stared along with everyone else at the new Earth Guardian.

To see what had the others' attention, Cordy stepped around Matt, who reached out and shut the door in her wake, and the sound of the latch was like a gunshot in the apartment.

Chloe's flowers were back, blossoming out of her hair as she soaked up the water that _should_ have been dripping off of her. Her complexion took on a greenish hue as Mal's movement toward her reflected a sunbeam from her parents' room off Amelia and onto Chloe.

Cordy belatedly realized why Matt was facing the other way; Elyon had pulled the towel away from around Chloe as the first few flowers bloomed. Now all the other women could see just how much of Chloe's system was crossing over from the animal kingdom to the vegetable.

"Chloe, was it like this before you got in the shower?"

Even her blush was green-tinged instead of pink as Chloe nabbed her towel back and rewrapped her newly 'blossoming' body. "_NO_, Aunt Elly, it most definitely _wasn't._ Aunt Will, can't you guys do something?" Her eyes tightened painfully, but no tears came. She started to get that same nameless horrible panic she'd gotten in Candracar, and her savior from then returned from across the room.

Cordy stepped up and wrapped her arms around her best friend. "Mom, can you take us back to Candracar, please? I think Chloe needs to see the Oracle about this."

Unsure, Elyon looked at Will, who just said, "May as well, El. This is _way_ out of our league. If Cornelia had ever mentioned _sprouting_ things, believe me, I'd have remembered."

"Hang on Aunt Elly," Mallory interrupted from her doorway. She ducked back into her room, set Amelia back on her case, and reached into her closet for a shirt-and-shorts set. Chortling at the set she grabbed, she went out and tossed it to Dee, since Chloe's hands were still full of towel. "That might be better for meeting the Oracle in."

Cordy chuckled when she saw the outfit's top, and flipped it over for the others to see.

"'Yes, I AM Little Miss Sunshine. Ya wanna make somethin' of it?'" Elyon read out, smiling back at the giant sunflower smiley-face centered on the shirt with its tongue sticking out. The Queen of Meridian actually giggled, and asked, "Okay, Musical Mal, 'fess up; you nabbed that from Hay Lin's closet, didn't you?"

Mallory just grinned and shook her head. "Nope. Trip pointed that one out to me while we were hangin' at the mall a couple weeks ago, and I laughed so hard when I saw it, I _had_ to buy it. The color's a dead giveaway," she said, pointing to the top's yellow background, Trip's signature color. "Better get going, Your Majesties, so you can get back by noon." That had been the _finally_ agreed-upon time for everybody to meet for practice.

"With a quick stop in Yan Lin's to change," Chloe added as, with a wave of Elyon's hand over their heads, the three winked out of Earthly existence.

"One crisis in good hands," Matt said, as the 'pop' of the trio's displacement faded. Turning on his daughter, he continued, "What possessed you to wake us all at … geez, is it already 9:30?" He looked from the clock on the stove over to Will, whose cheeks suddenly matched her hair. "And not a peep from Adam, huh babe?"

"_Who's Adam?"_ Yvonne asked Mallory from behind, while Matt closed the distance to Will.

"Huh? _Oh, … my parents alarm clock,"_ Mal whispered back. At Yvonne's quizzical look, she added, _"You know, like Alfred the intercom, yesterday?"_

"_Ohhhh,"_ Yvie responded, then with another glance at Matt and Will, she tittered. With a quick glimpse back at Mallory, she clapped a hand over her mouth, and ran for the bathroom before her muffled giggles became full-blown guffaws. She _almost_ made it, too.

The pair paused in their eyes-only argument (something they'd perfected when Mal and the other kids were first learning to talk) to look questioningly at their daughter. Mallory just grinned, shrugged, and was turning to go back to her room when she stopped and, with the help of her new connection with the Heart of Candracar, took a good hard look at her parents' energy fields. What she saw brought her grin back, and she crossed the room to give them both an unexpected hug and kiss.

"Sorry about getting you guys out of bed like that. I _was_ just trying to wake up Yvie." Mallory aimed a thumb over her shoulder at the just-returning Latina.

Yvie stopped next to Mal, and looked around the family room. Taking in the still-open (but made) sofa-bed and the empty coat hooks by the door, she asked, "Hey, where'd my parents go?"

Mystic

"Just keep your brothers under control while we're gone, okay guys?" Vida asked Sam and Trip.

The two fourteen-year-olds exchanged 'What did we do to deserve this?' glances, but reluctantly agreed.

Clare was just hanging up the phone in the now doorless kitchen. "Good news, guys. Reinforcements are on the way. Irma said she's sending Kyle over with Iggy, 'cause she's gotta take Martin to a dentist appointment, and Hay Lin's got a morning class at the hangar."

"_Reinforcements for which side?"_ Trip asked his brother in a whisper.

"I heard that," Vida said from the front door, a room away. Sam snickered.

"Hey, if yesterday was any indication, I think the Terrible Two have finally both made friends with someone who can keep up with 'em," he answered Trip.

"Yeah, but I reiterate: is this a good thing?"

"Just think of it this way, boys," Chip said to his two teenage sons, while pulling his tie over his head. He was headed in to shift after the parents' 'errand'. "It's a free chance for you three guys to practice your teamwork before this afternoon." With a final smile at Sam and Trip, he jogged out the door behind Vida and Clare. Zander had already gone ahead in his own car, since he was headed back to Briarwood to tell Udonna and the other Mentors the news once they were done.


	8. Training day Part 2

Mystic

M. Y. S. T. I. C.

MalloryYvonneSampsonTrip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.

Chapter Eight

"Training Day"

Part 2, the Meetings

Mystic

"So tell me what your idea is, Light of Mine," Maddie asked again, setting her just-emptied juice glass back down. The two were sitting in McDenny's, waiting for their friends – and their breakfasts (Maddie had a personal bet for which would show first) – in a corner booth with a view of their bikes.

"As soon as the others get here," Nick responded, his attention on his coffee cup. "I'd rather talk this one out with everybody at the same time."

"Bowwwwennnn …" Maddison was pleading now. "C'mon, honey, if you're about to start a fight, at least let me know which side I'm gonna be on, okay? It's about the kids, I ken that much, or you wouldn't have had V keep their four at home for this. Am I right?"

Nick nodded briefly, sympathizing with the mystery he was keeping his wife in. His own mother had done the same with him for nearly four months when they'd first found each other after eighteen years. "They're a big part of it, yeah, but they're not the _only_ part, Maddie. It's …" He broke off and waved out the window. Maddison looked over her shoulder, to see Zander ambling toward the entrance, even as Vida's SUV was pulling into the parking lot.

"I knew it," she was just starting to say to herself, when their waitress, a skinny brunette whose nametag declared 'Hi, I'm Courtney', set a platter of biscuits and gravy with three eggs in front of Nick, and a fruit platter before her.

Without batting an eye, Nick switched the two orders and smiled up at Courtney, who just rolled her eyes. "We've got four more joining us, Miss," he said, pointing out the window at Clare, Chip, and Vida, and waving the ever-flirting Zander towards them from where he was chatting up the greeter.

"You want another?" Courtney asked, pointing at Maddie's empty glass.

"Yeah … in fact, knowing the others, better make it three, and an extra carafe." Maddie looked over at Nick, who was already chewing on a melon wedge. "And coffee for the other two," they both said simultaneously, grinning.

Courtney smiled back at the pair sycophantically, gathered their empty glasses, and glided off to fill the drink request. "For this, I went to graduate school," she muttered, pouring three orange juices. Looking up at the extra bodies in question as they sat at the Russell's table, she did an internal double-take. There was the hunky Aussie guy she'd heard flirting with Alice at the door, the new cop Thorn, his wife (her sister Bess was continually calling her 'the uber-cook'), and … _Mixmistress V!_ Courtney almost dropped the overfilling glass in her hands. Hurriedly setting it on the tray with its mates, she turned to Syd and Dru, who were congregating at the drinks station between orders as usual.

"I told you girls this was a great place to work," Courtney practically gushed to the pair. "_Everybody_ stops here for breakfast eventually: Hannah Cyrus, Karmilla, VMJ, and now," she added with a flourish, "Mixmistress V. Where'd 'The Menu' go?" The trio kept an old menu from before the restaurant's buyout and remodel that they'd collected about thirty different autographs on over the years, starting from when Courtney had been a mere table-busser back in high school, and had met teen idol Vance Michael Justin on her first day. Since she'd gotten to serve him personally, Courtney considered it much more special, whereas when she'd helped out Loudmouth Lair and her weirdo friends at VMJ's concert the night before, that geekoid Martin had stolen all the thunder.

Now, she put a restraining hand out to catch hold of Syd, who was practically bouncing in place, and Dru, who had a stranglehold on her order book so tight, her fingerprints were indelibly marked on the next three forms. "What's up with you two?"

"Toofer," Dru said under her breath. When Courtney gave her a blank look, Syd translated.

"Two for one, Court. Didn't you recog the pair in leathers?" Courtney looked back at the Russells, and just shook her head blankly. "That's Nick Russell, from 'Motor Magic', the chopper show on the Speed Channel. He built the Cobalt Dream for Matt Olsen, and the Spidey-cycle they used in the last movie, and the Great Pumpkin the old geezer bought for Gus Sheffield when he graduated last year, and …"

"Alright, I get it, he's up there, but who's the other one?"

"Oh, that's his wife, Maddison. She _makes_ the show."

Courtney tried unsuccessfully to hide her smile at Sydney Barrymore's enthusiasm. "And how come you know all this?"

"Well, I dated Gus for a couple months, and he got me turned on to the show, and when my dad had his midlife crisis, he saw it with me and _that's_ where he got _his_ chopper from." While Courtney Hornby and Drusilla Nance digested that bit of gossip, Syd reached under the counter and pulled out the vaunted 'Autograph Menu'.

"Okay, this is what we'll do …" Courtney started.

Vida had been listening to the trio the whole time, as she pulled out the chair between her sister and her husband. Now, she slipped her neon pink Sharpie from her purse in preparation.

As she and Clare sat down, Maddison looked up to see their waitress returning with the drinks … and reinforcements. A young blonde woman whose nametag read 'Syd' was carrying the requested orange juices, while her brown-haired agemate was clutching an armful of menus. Courtney was carrying both coffeepots (just in case) and had the autograph menu under her arm in its protective cover.

"Dru, honey, could you pass those out to that end of the table for me?" Courtney directed her 'helpers' to their spots. When everyone had their drinks, (OJ for Zander and Clare, Decaf for Vida, who was smirking the whole time, and Chip snagged one of the unclaimed cups and was holding _two_ coffees, black with extra sugar,) Courtney made a show of laying down 'The Menu' kitty-korner between Nick and Vida, who winked at her brother-in-law. "It has come to our attention that we have not one, not two, but _three_ celebrities gracing us with their presence today. We, the waitstaff of McDenny's of Heatherfield, would be honored if you could sign our commemorative menu, Mister and Missus Russell, Mixmistress V."

While Nick and her sister were still getting over their shock at having been recognized, at least this far from home, Vida gave Courtney and the two girls a wide smile, and signed her recording name in an unoccupied corner by the fish entrees, noting she was keeping company with Karmilla and (this made her actually chuckle) Matt, Nigel, and Eric from Cobalt Blue. When Dru presented the silver marker most of the other signatures were done with to Maddie, Vida could see the tell-tale signs of well-hidden hero worship in the girl's eyes. Seeing the digital camera she slipped from a pocket confirmed it; they _each_ had a fan in Heatherfield.

The flash going off over his shoulder was the first clue to Nick that someone actually watched the show for Maddie. It made him prouder than ever of his wonderful wife. When she handed him the pen, her cheeks were as pink as Vida's signature. On getting a better look at the camera focused first on her and her sister, then as it and its wielder turned to get a shot of Nick in the act of signing, she realized how big a fan the girl must be of good lenswork.

"Hey, is that the Verizoom Mark X?" Maddie asked the self-conscious girl as Dru's flush grew to match hers.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Dru blinked, torn from behind the lens where she was most comfortable. Maddison could _so_ relate. She asked if she could see the girl's work, and Dru shyly held her prized camera out. Courtney and Syd were amazed at this; it was a well known fact Dru would rather donate blood without a tourniquet or anesthetic than hand over her camera. Maddie flipped through the last dozen pictures the brunette had saved, including one of each of the Ranger's breakfast party, as well as the folks Maddie'd seen leaving this very table when Nick and she had arrived. The pics of herself and the others were telling of the girls' talent. Dru'd managed to catch each of them at just the right time: Chip waving a hand over his mouth when he'd drank his coffees too fast; Zander's superior eyebrows raised at V as she signed her name with tiny smiley faces dotting her Is; Clare's slightly quizzical look as the trio made such a fuss about signatures (her cousin-in-law's relative naivety about such things as fame and celebrity status just made Maddie love her all the more) and the final telling shot, where Nick was sticking his tongue out one side of his mouth as he made his mark. She was always teasing him about that, and he was always denying it ever happened. Now, she had empirical proof, thanks to this lovely young prodigy.

Her smile set to split her face in two over the last picture, she handed the Verizoom back to Dru. "You're really good, Dru. I tell you what, if you ever get tired of hefting coffee, look us up. I could use another good eye behind the scenes."

"Y-You mean that?" the poor girl asked reticently.

"I do. In fact …" Maddie reached around the back of Nick's chair, feeding him a mouthful of her sun-bronzed hair in the process. "Here." She came back around and handed a business card for their shop to Dru. "And send me copies of those shots of all of us, too, okay?"

"S-Sure, Missus Russell …" Dru scampered off back to the relative sanity of waiting tables, but not before Vida had caught sight of the star-struck young girl pulling the band from her ponytail to secure Maddie's card to her camera.

"Remind you of someone, sis?" she asked her sister.

"Why, I have no idea who you could mean," Maddison answered, fully aware they were all thinking just how much the young woman had resembled Maddie at that age.

Courtney meanwhile had whisked 'The Menu' safely away until the next celebrity sighting, and was back to focusing on her regular job. "So, do you know what you want, or would you four like a few minutes?"

The Rangers all looked at each other for a moment, then started flipping through the menus Dru had left them. Courtney was smiling to herself, and just turning to walk away to see to her other tables, when Zander, Vida and Chip all spoke up at once. Five cacophonous seconds later, Clare 'tinged' her waterglass with her fork, instantly shutting the others up.

"I'll have what they're having," she said in a beautiful Welsh brogue, waving her hand in Nick and Maddie's direction. The other five all gaped at her for several seconds, then Vida spoke out, just to break the silence.

"Y'know what, Courtney? Just make it three more of those, and we'll sort it out as we go." The two women smirked at each other, and Courtney set off for the kitchen to drive the cooks insane.

"Clare, honey?" Chip got hold of one of her hands in his. "You feeling okay? Or is Udonna channeling through so she won't have to wait for Zander to get home?" Nick almost snorted his coffee.

Clare just gave her husband a dazzling smile. "I'm fine, Chip," she said in her normal voice. "I've just always wanted to do that," she continued in her lilting new accent. "I figure, why let Toby have all the fun."

"You caught that too, huh?" Vida sighed. "So much went on last night, I didn't even think to ask Yan Lin how long he kept it up once we were away."

"If hie didn't drop it in the first foive minites, odds are hie kept it up aull noight." Zander grinned, loving the fact that his son loved his dad, and his dad's rolling accent, that much. "Now, Nickie, since we're aull waiting heah for a whoile anyway, what's up?"

Nick sighed; here went nothing, and everything. "Look, our kids are gonna have to be in Heatherfield for the duration, and we all know that probably means way longer than the couple weeks we originally planned for these trips, or even the summer. Here's what I propose …"

Mystic

"You must understand," Himerish began, after hearing of Chloe's morning tribulation. "There is nothing to 'fix', Earth Guardian. This is part of you, as much as Princess Cordelia's heightened senses and preference for raw meats are part of her."

Cordy flushed, looking over her shoulder at her father Lucain, whose feline ancestry had given her the aforementioned traits. He was grinning back at her, while Elyon was leaned up against his long lanky frame. The two were holding hands, as Chloe and Dee were, needing the tactile reassurance in the austere chamber which was Lucain's residence in Candracar.

"But Oracle, if she really is part Murmurer, what's to keep my brother from taking control of her?" Elyon asked, putting to voice the very real fear Chloe had alluded to her on their way from Yan Lin's rooms.

"Perhaps a protective spell would guard against that … and an adaptive glamour or two could … keep Chloe from showing her spots," Yan Lin commented from the divan in the corner. Her characteristic 'Grandma's Grin' was showing to full force.

"Hmmmm, yes, that should suffice," the Oracle answered her. "However, we will have to find another spellshaper. Luba's loss is unfortunate, but I cannot fault her for wanting to move on, or for her choice in replacements." He smiled at Lucain appreciatively.

"Hey, Oracle," Cordy piped up. "Clare and the other Power Rangers're sorcerers, remember? And they all learned from Yvie's grandma Udonna, kinda like the Guardians did with Yan Lin."

The elderly former Air Guardian smiled in pride at Cordelia. The Meridian Princess had always been sharp, keeping grades consistent with the likes of Iggy and Mark. Now, Yan Lin chuckled as one of her star pupils actually lectured the Oracle.

"Udonna … haven't we met her before, Yanny?" Halinor asked from by the Oracle, turning to her.

"Yes, but we weren't properly introduced, since we were pretty busy at the time, protecting the Veil around Briarwood." Yan Lin looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, Cassidy might remember her better; the two were thick as thieves at one point before we left."

"Heh. Forgot all about that." Halinor grinned at her old friend. "You've been practicing in your Memory Chamber, huh?" Yan Lin's quiet smile was all the answer she got. "Well, we'll be seeing her later today ourselves, so anything she can tell us might be useful …"

"Uh, Aunt Halinor, we're gonna be power-practicing around noon, and we kinda hoped to get anything we _can_ solve, solved _before_ then …" Chloe said leadingly.

The two former Guardians exchanged long glances for the impatience of youth. The Oracle merely chuckled and said, "By all means, this is a pressing matter. Yan Lin, Halinor, if you could please collect Miss MacLean, we could be about this." The pair shared another amazed look before turning it on the Oracle. He merely gave them both an acknowledging nod, and the former Air and Fire Guardians folded from Lucain's Chamber with a flash.

Mystic

A few moments later, the pair of former Guardians reappeared, completely wind-tossed, each bearing one of their teammates. Cassidy was dressed in a parachute suit, looking entirely too pleased with herself. Kadma was attired in her usual rose-colored caftan, was completely drenched, and was glaring daggers at Cassidy. Just as their fold was about to close, Hay Lin came flailing out of it, nearly knocking the other four women over. She caught herself at the last second, however, and in an acrobatic display that made the two cheerleaders sigh in envy, she handsprung up and over the elder former Guardians and, after a mid-air spin, landed facing them in a martial-arts ready stance.

"Alright … you four …" she managed between gasps for breath. "What … was _that_ … all about?"

"I believe Cassidy was merely engaged in some early natal-day frivolity, Hay Lin," the Oracle answered for them. He smiled serenely as he stepped forward to place a calming hand on her shoulder. Offering his sash once again to a dripping Guardian, he glanced at Cassidy. "A novel approach to quick water-gathering, Miss MacLean. I must remember to pass that technique on to young Guardian Russell."

Queen Elyon meanwhile was giggling at Hay Lin, who had relaxed at the Oracle's touch, but hadn't dropped out of her ready stance. "So, Hay-hay. Shou-lin Monk … or Drunken Master?" The younger Earth girls, Cassidy, and Yan Lin all cracked up at that, and Hay Lin, after looking at her soft-fisted crane stance, joined in.

Kadma was wringing her hair out over a potted plant Lucain kept in the corner, her eyes still narrowed in mid-revenge planning at Cassidy, when Chloe stepped into her field of vision. At her first glimpse of the tiny daisy-like growths peeking out of the girl's golden tresses, the former Earth Guardian gasped. Lurching forward, Kadma lay a hesitant hand between a green flower and a blue one, letting her elemental affinity broach her awareness of the tiny blossoms. When the two appeared to blink at her, she stumbled back, nonplussed.

"Hello, Aunt Kadma," Chloe said without turning around. All other activity in the room ceased as everyone else turned to see what the former Earth Guardian had to say to, and _about_, her successor twice removed.

"I … I didn't … I don't hear them …" Kadma murmured, her brow furrowed.

"That's 'cause they're not separate plants, Kadma," Yan Lin said drolly. "They're part of _her_."

"How ...?" The elderly Guardian stared at the pair of tiny flowers until Chloe turned to face her.

"Do you remember when my Dad was turned into a Murmurer by Phobos?" the newest Guardian asked. Kadma nodded numbly. "Yeah, well apparently, they didn't turn him all the way back human before Mom got pregnant," Chloe continued sardonically. She traded glances and grins with Cordy. "So the Princess here isn't the only crossbreed after all." The platinum-haired girl grinned wider, showing off her pronounced, and sharp, canines (or in her case, felines).

"And thus bringing us back to the reason for this gathering," Himerish interjected. He stepped next to Chloe, facing Cassidy and Kadma. "Changing young Guardian Hale's basic nature is not only questionably plausible at present, but also dangerous, both for her and those who would have to work the necessary forces, since we do not have a whole, _objective_, team of Guardians available for the task. Neither would I counsel either of our allied Hearts to attempt the transformation, for similar reasons. Yan Lin has suggested instead, that a protective spell be woven for Chloe to prevent Phobos from asserting control over her. For this …" The Oracle trailed off, seeing the raised eyebrows of the pair of former Guardians. "Yes?"

"How could Phobos take control of Chloe?" Cassidy blurted out.

""Why would he bother?" Kadma added. "Isn't he still imprisoned in Meridian?"

"Remember, Cassidy, that Phobos created the Murmurers out of ensorcelled slaves. Those he controlled that way were never safe from him again," Yan Lin answered the first question, then turned to face Elyon with everyone else. The Queen of Meridian stood straight before their scrutiny, and after a quick squeeze of Lucain's hand for support, started in on the recent news she knew only Halinor and the Oracle had heard so far.

"Yesterday evening (Meridian-wise, at least,) a massed force of shadow-powered troops attacked the Torus Filney prison, with the intent of releasing Phobos. Though our guards are well trained and most are seasoned warriors of the previous rebellion, they were no match for these creatures. In the aftermath, we found that, though we had lost over a dozen men, and suffered almost twice that many wounded, there were no bodies found of the enemy forces. This was despite several reliable accounts of successful rallies and one eyewitness who swore he saw Vathek literally stomp one through a door. Mind you, these were just the commanded fodder. The leaders of these troops is a whole 'nother source for worry. Vathek was injured by one of a trio of reptilian commanders that he swore looked like Cedric." At everyone's gasps, Elyon nodded.

"What's worse, Aldarn and I checked Cedric and Miranda's cells, only to discover that a pair of glamoured larveks had been left as decoys, so nobody would miss those two during checks." She hung her head for a moment, as the last part was her fault alone. "Apparently, they've been missing for _years_, and since I'm the only one who was able to check for spells on any recaptured prisoners the last time those two made a bid for freedom, (and I didn't think of it at the time) they slipped through the cracks somewhere about fifteen years ago. Either the snake took refuge in some remaining hidden pocket of his people, or (ahem) he and Miranda got as busy during the last few years as the rest of us." She looked back at Lucain, her cheeks crimson.

"Mom, when did you go back?" Cordelia asked, suddenly suspicious.

"This morning, while you were showering, honey." Elyon was jolted to see her daughter was more angry than afraid that she'd 'returned to the scene of the crime'. "We were only there a few minutes, to confirm which prisoners were released," she continued defensively. "Most of his old loyalists didn't get taken along, if that's any consolation." She looked pleadingly at Hay Lin, hoping the ever-upbeat Air Guardian could help get her daughter off this matter. Fortunately, even without the benefit of Taranee's talent, Hay Lin realized where Dee's train of thought was headed.

"Elly, you said _most_. Was Frost still locked up?" she asked before Cordy could work up the fortitude to broach the subject. All eyes flicked briefly to Lucain as she asked.

"Yes," was all Elyon had to say, and the amount of bite she set behind that one word put an end to that topic. Sensing the next question ahead of time, she did add, "For some reason, the only other prisoner they released was the old Lurden guard captain, Kubrast. Though what they could want with him is beyond me. Prison life hasn't treated him well."

"Information, maybe. He knew a lot about Phobos' secret weapon caches, and most of the Lurdens still guarding them would probably be loyal to him to this day," Lucain supplied, surprising everybody. At their looks of disbelief, he asked, "What? Did everyone think I just spent my days lounging around the palace, playing the Queen's pampered house-cat?" The C-girls both tittered, and Elyon beamed up at him, her love for him reenergized with this reminder of the quick wit that had originally attracted her to him.

Seeing they were quickly going nowhere again, Yan Lin cleared her throat. "I think we can save those speculations for the Guardians' briefing after practice this afternoon; I'd like them to get in a few solid hours learning about their powers before they start spraining their brains in other directions." Turning until she faced her old teammates again, the old Chinese woman let her 'Grandma's Grin' slip back into place. "Now, as we were saying before Her Royal Highness' news update, we need a new spellweaver, Cassidy. Our new Guardians have reintroduced us to an old ally of sorts, but it's one _you_ had the most contact with, last time. Do you remember Udonna of Briarwood?"

Cassidy's freckled nose scrunched up as she concentrated, muttering the two names in an effort to dredge up the memories from several decades – and an incarnation – ago. Then, her eyes lit up, and she looked around at her old team with a mischievous grin. "Leanbow's girlfriend, the Ice Queen herself. Yeah, I remember her. Couldn't stand the thought of her sweetie having another girl as a friend, and kept introducing me to their other … _unattached_ teammates. Don't know what she was so worried about, honestly, I'd have thought Hally here was more of a threat to her than _moi_." She giggled, then added, "Actually, I was trying to get him to introduce me to their sun-wielder, anyway. I wonder whatever happened to all of them?"

Yan Lin grinned back at her. "Well, here's your chance to find out, Cass. Field trip time, ladies." With that, she rounded up C.h.k.y. and Chloe, and was just turning to give the Oracle a farewell nod, when Cordelia jumped into their circle at Chloe's side at the last second.

"NO way you're going through this without me," she said breathlessly to her girlfriend as Yan Lin enveloped the six of them in a fold to Briarwood.

Elyon screamed her daughter's name as the girls disappeared. She was ready to fold blind behind them, when Lucain's strong arms wrapped around her from behind, and the Oracle laid a calming hand on her shoulder, while Hay Lin just started laughing at the teen's antics.

"They shall be fine, Your Majesty. I dare say it will probably be a good thing for Guardian Hale to have a friend with her. Astute as your daughter has shown herself to be, Princess Cordelia will probably help keep the others … 'on track', I believe is the phrase." Himerish smiled reassuringly at Elyon, who was still shaking with all the stress the last two days had wrought on her.

"Yeah, c'mon, Elyon," Hay Lin added, still trying to keep her giggles contained. "Think about it: who would you rather have in your corner if you found out you had to go for a vaccination booster this very minute? Your court advisors, or Cornelia and Lucain?" She spoke from personal experience; little Martin was impossible to comfort at his doctor appointments without the stuffed bear she'd given him for his first birthday. 'Sir Whiskalot' was Martin's champion, a true knight in silver cloth armor with an egg-beater stitched to his paw. "Ooooh! Which reminds me, I gotta get back to Earth to call Irma … and to see how many people survived from my skydiving class …" She grinned sheepishly at Elyon, Himerish, and Lucain, all of who smiled indulgently at their resident absent-minded artist.

"Come on, Hay Lin. I'll get you back to your hangar." Elyon paused with a devilish gleam in her eye, and looked back over her shoulder to give the Oracle and the Keeper of the Aurameres a conspiratorial wink. "And I'll cover for Cassidy, too," she added, calling up a glamour to make herself look like the older redhead, parachute, freckles, and all. With one last devilish grin to Hay Lin, she asked, "So … on the ground ..? Or mid-air?"

Hay Lin smiled back. "Her Majesty's choice, of course," she replied, her tone giving voice to the dare. The two women gave rebellious 'whoop's as they disappeared through the fold Elyon opened onto a rolling blue cloudscape several thousand feet over Heatherfield, and Lucain turned to the Oracle with a pained expression.

"Is Earth, or Metamoor, ready for a half-dozen former Guardians and their friends to go through a second childhood? Or in Cassidy's case, a third?" The Oracle merely smiled serenely in answer, and the two headed for the Chamber of the Aurameres nearby, to watch from the small viewing pool there how things were progressing in Heatherfield.


	9. Training Day Part 3

M.Y.S.T.I.C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.

Chapter Nine

"Training Day"

Part 3, Gathering

"I'm telling you, Trip, never again! I don't care how much they cry, or how much they beg, I'll pay the girls out of my own allowance to watch them before I volunteer for that again …" Sam was wringing his hair out over the sink in the bathroom, after he'd managed to wash the last of the peanut butter and syrup out of it from their brothers' breakfast food fight. "Thank god for frozen waffles; Can you imagine the disaster we'd have had to deal with from batter?" As was, the toaster and the coffeemaker were both inadvertent casualties. The toaster had gotten a chunk of waffle stuck inside, and had burst into flames, while the coffeepot had taken an overcooked sausage link through the side and promptly shattered all over the kitchen. Fortunately, it had already been emptied by all the adults beforehand.

"Dude, we're just lucky Iggy showed up when he did." Beyond a scorchmark on the nearest wall, the toaster's fire hadn't had time to do any real damage before Iggy had smothered it in a hurry with his powers.

"You're just lucky we kept you from throwing a glass of water on it. Gods, Trip, what were you thinking?"

"That mom would rather buy a new toaster than have to fix the whole kitchen."

"And how do you think she'd have taken rushing back up to the hospital two days running because her other son is a prone, too?" Trip just grumbled and threw the towel he was done with at Sam's head.

"Hey, would you two keep it down? I can hear ya both in the other room over the Terrible Trio's Gamestation. And _they're_ playin' 'Nuke City Death Derby'!" Iggy yelled from the other side of the door. "Can't tell you two are related, can ya?" he muttered to himself.

"I heard that," Sam hissed around the bathroom door, making Iggy grin. Sam started drying his hair vigorously while Trip turfed out his hamper trying to find a relatively clean shirt.

"This'll do," he sighed, finally getting one that didn't have a random stain or too much b.o. "Well?" He turned to face Sam, who had straightened up again and was drying the backside of his mane. He just grunted when he read Trip's shirt, which said 'YOU'RE ON MY IGNORE LIST'.

"What's taking you girls so long, anyway? It only took like seven minutes to scrub up all THREE of the pip-squeaks," Iggy teased from the hallway.

A woman's scream from the kitchen interrupted Trip's retort. Turning back to Sam, he asked, "What, no warning, Mister 'I can hear _everything'_?"

Sam reemerged from the towel he'd been drying with, and stuck his tongue out at his brother. The door burst open to reveal a fuming Clare. The boys could see Iggy hightailing it back to the family room to clear out of her way. Vida stood behind her, her expression warring between angry and amused. When she saw that the final two bodies involved with the destruction in the kitchen were intact, she decided to settle back and watch the irate sorceress in action first.

"What … did … you … do … to … my … _KITCHEN?!" _Sam could actually see a vein throbbing in Clare's forehead like a bad anime character.

Trip caved first. "Mom, we are SO sorry. We were gonna clean that next, honest. We were just finishing us up first, since we were already soaked from cleaning up the Trio …" His voice trailed off as he realized that he wasn't going to win back any points no matter HOW convincing his story. He was ducking even as Clare raised her hand, but instead of grabbing for him, she just whirled and pointed at Vida.

"V, get them to practice. I'll think of an appropriate punishment when they get back. I just want to know one thing," she amended as she whipped back to face the boys, finger still extended and wavering between the two. "Who's responsible for killing the toaster?"

The boys looked at each other guiltily, and Sam uttered, "Would you believe cheap store-brand waffles, Momma Clare?" Her screech as she spun and stalked back towards the kitchen, wand already out, was enough to convince them to run straight out to the elevator, only slowing down to tell Iggy to run for it on their way past. Vida followed sedately behind, laughing the whole way.

Mystic

Mallory and Yvonne cruised into the subdivision on their bikes. As the only pair traveling without an adult's help, they'd decided to range around the perimeter of the construction area to make sure there weren't any unwanted eyes nearby. While they rode, Yvonne was grilling Mal about her music.

"What do you mean you've never really gotten the hang of the guitar? Your father's in a _ROCK_ band, for gods' sakes."

"Yeah, I know," Mallory answered, her auburn hair streaming loose behind her. Yvie felt better knowing _she'd_ worn a helmet, at least. "But I've had Amelia since I was six, and I've always liked violin and fiddle music. You should see my playlist; everything on it has one or the other mixed into a rock song. Well, everything that isn't Cobalt Blue or Mixmistress V, anyway."

"Did you even sleep last night?"

"A couple hours right before dawn, I guess, why? It's all I ever seem to need."

"'Cause you never even expressed an interest in techno that I rem, and all of a sudden you have all my Aunt Vida's discography on your laptop?"

"Yeah, Trip bit-streamed 'em to me last night while we chatted after you zonked. He doesn't sleep much either." Yvonne snorted, whether in laughter or from all the dust the two were raising was hard to say. Mal pulled up next to several stacked concrete water half-pipes, their pattern reminiscent of Spanish shingles. She sat back, just looking at them for a minute, and sighed.

"What?" Yvie asked, noticing the dreamy look on Mallory's face.

"That's where Trip and I first kissed." Her e-friend looked askance at her.

"On top of a bunch of cement?" Yvonne shook her head sadly. "Remind me to tell Trip how to romance a girl for you."

Mallory just laughed. "No, silly. These weren't here, then. Before the second company tracked all this junk in, this used to be one of the last heather fields the town was named for. Back at the end of March, we came out here stargazing, and he did this whole, 'You can see them much better if you just … lay … back' bit, and the next thing I know, the only stars I'm seeing are the ones reflecting from his eyes off mine." She pursed her lips in unconscious memory of that first nighttime encounter, then her eyes flew up to glare unexpectedly at Yvie. "Hey, did he have any girlfriends back in Briarwood? I just wonder, ya know, 'cause he's a _really_ good kisser …" Yvie made a face and shook her head.

"GF, you're the only girl I've ever seen interested in him, _especially_ that way."

Their candid discussion was abruptly ended by the arrival of Vida with the three boys, with Taranee and Irma shortly behind in the Inspector's work truck. The two women clambered out and started digging a large pile of equipment out of the back, including a pair of extinguishers, a gigantic aluminum washtub, and a sports team's worth of protective padding. By the time they were through tossing all the pads into the washtub to carry it to the practice site, Iggy, Trip, and Sam had unloaded their contributions to the day's exercises: a crate of clay shooting targets, a box of random jangling merchandise, and a half-dozen giant hula-hoops. Yvie also noticed that Iggy had several sport-stopwatches and a whistle dangling from his neck.

"Wow, you think the guys are taking this a little too seriously?" she asked Mallory.

The auburn-haired girl got a grim look on her face, and just parked her bike behind the cement half-pipes. Digging the Heart of Candracar out of her sleeveless hoodie's collar line, Mal just shook her head as she started to walk towards the waiting boys. "Nope," was all she said to Yvonne as the Latin girl scurried to catch up.

Mystic

Cassidy, Chloe, Cordelia, Halinor, Kadma, and Yan Lin materialized in a clearing just outside the Briarwood city limits, outside the forest. "Sorry, ladies," Yan Lin stated, "but this is the only landmark I could remember to aim for." Motioning for the others to follow, the spry seventy-five/eighty-five year old led her friends into the Briarwood.

They'd barely crossed the remains of the veil, which kept passing motorists from noticing the fantastic qualities of the woods, when they were brought up short by a trio of brightly armored figures who appeared literally out of the trees. The man in front, donned in gold-chased red plate mail, was clearly the leader. The filigree on his armor outlined a pair of dragons, the heads of which served as shoulder-guards. He stood alertly but not aggressively right before the six women, his sword sheathed in the back of his shield.

His able-looking companions, one dressed in blue and the other in white, (the latter clearly female,) both exuded casual but ready power. The blue one's golden cape whipped in the slight wind when he turned slightly to the other two, clearly communicating with them somehow. Yan Lin's ears, fine-tuned by the enhancing gifts of becoming an Air Guardian and perfected by practice as a parent and grandparent, faintly heard an echo as it rumbled throughout his armor.

"_They don't _look_ like an invading coven of witches_." Yan Lin smiled, and Cordy, picking the mental repeat up from her, giggled, and relayed it to the other four.

"Uh, excuse us, Mister uh, Drake," Chloe began, stepping up to the man in red. "We don't want any trouble. We come seeking Udonna. We … _I_ … need her help." The white and blue armored figures looked at each other for a second, while the red-garbed man straightened ever so slightly.

"Help with what?" He seemed genuinely curious. Chloe reached back and pulled her hair over her shoulder, to show them the flowers, but noticed her tiny friends had gone back into hiding. Cordelia, catching on, thought fast.

"_Uh, Aunt Cassie, could you help her out with some mist?"_ she asked telepathically. In answer, Cassidy merely closed her eyes in concentration for a moment, siphoning some of the moisture out of the nearby air, then sent it as a gentle spray over Chloe's head. The cheerleader looked up in surprise for a second, but was reassured by the squeeze Cordy gave her hand. Reawakened by the miniature rainfall, her blossoms reemerged, to the exclamations of Cassidy, Kadma, and the armored threesome. Hearing a tiny sigh of contentment, Chloe looked down, and saw the purple flower on Dee's wrist sucking in the fine spray with relish as well. She chuckled.

"How do you know of Udonna, and why do you think she can help you with … this?" the man in blue asked. Yan Lin heard Cassidy gasp behind her.

"From her granddaughter, Yvonne," Chloe answered, realizing the trio was putting her through the old 'answer these questions three' routine. When the three all stepped back, looking alarmed and reaching for weapons, though, she hurriedly added a qualifier of her own, to keep them from dispensing what could quickly become a very _final_ cure. "I'm Chloe, her net pal Mallory's cousin. She's staying at our place for a couple of weeks for summer vacation, and when this happened, I was told Udonna could help!" she rushed out, cringing back even as the others from Heatherfield moved protectively around her. The three armored figures all relaxed as soon as she was finished, though, and the woman in white's armor disappeared in a flash of white light and a dusting of snowflakes, as she rushed past the two men and straight to Chloe. She wore flowing white robes, and her long light red hair was held back by the two braids that framed her face. Chloe recognized Udonna from pictures of Yvie's last birthday party, which the Water Guardian had shown the other girls on her laptop during one of the breaks in dinner last night.

Just as Udonna got to the golden-haired girl, whose flowers shrank away from the rush of cold air in the ice-sorceress' wake, a fourth armored figure burst onto the scene from a nearby jack-pine. This one was dressed all in green, and his helmet bore two bull's horns. "Sorry Oi'm late; Had tou wait teh get ouff the expresswaiy first," the figure started to say, then pulled up when he saw what his teammates were dealing with. "Crickey, you lot get around, don'cha?" He powered down, his friendly smile making the four elder former Guardians relax despite themselves.

"Hi, Zander," Cordy and Chloe echoed, the latter giving him a smile from behind Udonna, who was closely examining one of her flowers. He beamed at the girls, then strode over to the other four to get acquainted. The other two men powered down as well with resigned sighs, and stepped towards Udonna to see if they could help.

Halfway there, the second man, now dressed in a simple blue tunic over grey breeches, was brought up short by the sight of the young woman with curling red hair. Dressed as if she were about to go skydiving, she crinkled her freckled nose at him in concentration. Two sets of eyes flew wide in recognition, and the pair closed the distance between them in a rush, embracing to the surprise of everyone else.

"Daggeron, it is you!" the former Water Guardian cried.

"Oh Cass! Sweet Cassidy, I thought I'd never see you again!" His eyes ran with tears as the two kissed, and Yan Lin had to hide her smile, especially when she heard Kadma repeating quietly to herself _'Sweet Cassidy,'_ obviously remembering her morning soaking.

"But … but what happened in the cave?" Cassidy was muttering into his collar, loath to let Daggeron go now that she'd found him again after so many years. "You and … and … oh, whoever he was, you two went to the cave to find the Fireheart the night before the big battle, and we never heard from you again."

"Calindor …" Daggeron murmured, reminded of the years he'd spent sealed up in that ghastly cave, transformed into a frog by his onetime shield-brother. His last-minute counter-spell hadn't saved himself, but it had placed Calindor in a state of hibernation that only ended when Udonna's son Bowen and his team of Rangers had found the cave.

"Never again!" the man in red roared angrily, startling all of them. "He was Imperius when he entered that cave, Imperius when he attacked you, Imperius when he betrayed the Rangers who released him … He died as Imperius, and no more will we speak his other name!"

"Leanbow," Udonna began, turning to take his arm soothingly. He stalked away from the group, his anger brimming at the top, his eyes flashing dangerously. Zander took her hand for a second.

"G'wan wit' this lot, Udonna. Theiy came tou siee you. Oi'll siee whot Oi can dou for our resident grizzley-beah, okaiy?" He gave her his trademark grin, and shooed them all into the forest before turning back to face the still-fuming Leanbow. Not waiting to see if the others had already left, he jumped right into the action he knew this called for. "Oi think Koragg's still sitting in theah, roiled up boy aull this bad blood between you and Imperius. D'ye need ta let yoah innah crieep out for some fresh aiah and a good can of butt-whuppin', Leanbow?" Zander stood at the ready, his arms spread in a 'come get some' gesture, his Morpher transformed to its Mystic Wand form.

With an incoherent roar, Leanbow whipped around, and he stabbed upward with his own wand. He and Zander both cried "MAGICAL SOURCE! MYSTIC FORCE!" simultaneously, and returned to their armored forms in brilliant flashes of red and green, respectively. They lay into each other in a sudden clash of steel, Zander's Mystic Axe ringing off of Leanbow's shield then spinning to deflect the furious slash of his sword in an amazing display of weapons-mastery. Within moments, it became apparent that it was a regular sparring match, Zander taking advantage of Leanbow's momentary anger to let his Mentor blow off some long-pent-up steam in a safe manner, relatively speaking.

The two younger girls watched for several minutes as they followed the older Guardians and Rangers into the forest. The flurrying activity reminded them of watching Caleb's advanced classes with Aldarn, Nigel, Matt and Irma, the latter two who, despite years of wielding magical might, still felt the need to learn the basics of regular fighting, just in case. It was a philosophical statement that had infected all the Guardians' - and the Rangers' – children; a feeling that, should the need arise, they would be prepared to defend themselves, or others, just in case. It suddenly occurred to Cordy why it had been so hard to sense that Mal and Trip were suddenly spending more time together. So much of what they did – what ALL of the kids did, was so alike, that their other activities had truly been just backdrop. She sent as much to Chloe as they walked, who just nodded at the veracity. With a last look back at the now patiently fencing pair of Rangers behind them, the two cheerleaders followed their new friend's grandmother around a bend in the path, and out of sight.

Mystic

The five new Guardians were working out, waiting for Chloe to come back before transforming. Irma had told them, after they'd gotten most of their equipment set up where they thought they'd need it, about her phone call from Hay Lin. Mid-jump, the former Air Guardian had called her life-partner about the journey their elders and the C-girls were on to see Udonna, her voice warring with the roar of the wind and Elyon whooping in the background. She'd finally hung up at the quarter-mile mark, so she could pull her 'chute. Irma still wasn't sure whether to be irked or impressed with her daredevil girlfriend.

So the teens were sparring, set up into pairs and switching partners every few minutes, with Vida and Irma alternating as a sixth partner. After a half hour, the kids called a drink break, so they wouldn't burn up too much of their energy too early. After quick swigs of water, Irma and Vida's eyes met. Having watched each other fight for the last while, they both came to the realization they still had some excess energy of their own, and what better way to use it than a match against each other. With mirroring nods, they set their glasses down, and walked back out to the middle of the field the Guardians had picked to practice in. Taranee, picking up on what they were doing, decided she better referee, just in case. The teens gathered in a half-circle at the equivalent of the dimensions for a fight-mat at a dojo, to give the match some semblance of regulation.

Irma and Vida circled for several seconds, neither one making a move toward the other. Finally, Irma let her mouth take over. "C'mon, MV, let's see what ya got. Or should I call you DMV? You're movin' that slow." 'Loudmouth Lair' nearly got her mouth washed out with Vida's boot, the Air Ranger kicked out so fast after that bit of trash-talk. The teens all applauded, yelling for more action. They weren't disappointed.

As if that first kick had been the opening salvo of a war, Vida and Irma started trading punches and kicks at rapid-fire speed. Some of their blocks and counters flowed so quickly into each other they almost looked like they were dancing instead of fighting.

Struck by a sudden idea, Yvie yelled out, "Hey, Aunt V! Aunt Irma!" so startling the latter that Vida caught her with a right punch to the gut, completely winding Irma. She reeled out of reach while the teens winced, and Vida turned on her niece. "Sorry," the young Latina uttered contritely. "I just wanted to ask: WMAA or wrestling rules?" When the others looked at her blankly, she added, "You know; first to five points, or a three-second pin."

Vida looked back at Irma. The former Water Guardian, having caught her breath, set one fist on a hip and gave the Wind Ranger an evil grin. "Why not use both?" Taranee and the girls gawked at her, Sam and Iggy looked at each other in alarm, and Trip doubled over, laughing his head off.

Vida just blinked, chuckled, and said, "Fine, but I'm not counting that one; interference and all that." She glared at Yvonne again. Irma grinned wider, and once Trip had finally stopped laughing, set her feet and gave Vida a 'come get me' gesture.

What followed looked like the strangest bare-fisted grudge match of all time. One woman would get a decent hit in on the other, the two would grapple for a few seconds while they tried to knock each other down, then they'd break apart to catch their breath.

Finally, Vida had a two-point lead on Irma, needing just one more to win, when Irma put on an inadvertent power display for the five teens. Dancing back from a spinning kick from Vida, she yelled "STAND STILL ALREADY!" V went stiff as a board just as she got her other foot back under her. Irma charged forward with a lightning jab aimed at Vida's solar plexus, but before she could throw the punch, let alone make contact, the Pink Ranger toppled over from a wind gust of all things, her form frozen in a ready stance. Irma skidded to a halt next to her, as shocked as the five teens rushing up to see what the problem was.

Realizing what she'd done, Irma knelt down and looked Vida in the eyes, then summoned up a bit of power from deep within and said, "You can move again, V," emphasizing each word while she caught Vida's suddenly-lax hand in her grip, and hauled upward so the two stood together.

Vida shook the stiffness out of her legs, looking askance at the former Guardian. "Cheap trick, Lair," she started to say, even as the eight people were surrounded by all the other new Guardians' parents, with the exception of Chip, who was starting his afternoon shift as one of Heatherfield's Finest.

Maddie whirled Vida out of Irma's grip, facing off with her Water-powered counterpart with her wand in one hand and her other arm wrapped protectively around her sister's shoulders. "What did you do to my sister?" she demanded, even as everyone else backed up several steps in confusion. Irma dropped into a fighting crouch, ready to defend herself again, this time for real, if need be.

"Nothing, honest! We were just sparring!" she started blurting out. "Geez, you people are jumpy. She was winning, and I told her to hold still, so I could get a couple points back, ya know? And I guess I sorta hypnotized her, 'cause she DID, all of a sudden. Then she fell over, and I unfroze her, and you guys showed up to watch us finish, right V?" Back in her element with an audience, Irma was laying it on thick and fast, even including her newest partner in crime on the sugarcoating she was spreading over her story.

Taranee and Will groaned, recognizing an old Irma Lair tactic in the making. Then Will's eyes lit up as the realization came to her of what this meant. Concentrating hard, she thought to Taranee. _"T, you don't think ..?"_

"_What do you ..? Oh … my … GOD!"_ Taranee practically squealed as it hit her too. They still had some of their powers, after all! _"Cornelia, quick! Try to lift something telekinetically!"_ The braided fire inspector turned to their financial genius in excitement. Cornelia looked at her quizzically for a second, then concentrated on a cup over by the cooler the firefighters had brought with them. Slowly, the plastic cup levitated a few inches, then soared straight over and emptied its contents over Irma's head. The former Guardians' children, catching on, laughed as Irma, her brown hair soaked in purple Sport-Aid, shook off like an angry cat and muttered dire threats at 'Corny'. The Ranger contingent looked on in confusion for several seconds, then the whole situation caught up with them, and starting with Sam and Vida, they were soon laughing along with everyone else at the absurdity of it all.

"Oh, gods, I needed that," Irma and Clare said simultaneously, then just looked at each other and started laughing all over again, making everyone else groan, then they were all chuckling at the two women.

Just as they were all finally calming down, a fold opened up at the far end of the line of cars the parents had all left to come charging to Vida's rescue. Irma, as the only one facing that way, was the first to see the young blonde-haired woman who stepped out. "Whoops, looks like you get a reprieve, V. Our final Guardian has arrived for class, finally …" Her voice trailed off even as the others turned to see what had gotten her attention.

"What in the world are you people doing out here?" the woman asked, even as the others realized this wasn't Chloe after all, though most of them still recognized her.

"Lillian!" Cornelia, the other former Guardians, and their kids cried happily, swarming forward to engulf her in hugs of glad recognition. Poor Lillian Hale, suddenly surrounded by a crush of her favorite people, was sorely tempted to just fold right back out of their enthusiastic embrace. "You would not _believe_ what happened last night, little sis …" Cornelia continued, ready to tell the Heart of Earth all that had occurred to her nieces, actual and honorary, along with Iggy and their friends. Even as she was elbowing people to back off to give her and Lillian some breathing (and gossiping) space, Lillian spied the Ranger contingent, and rounded on her sister all over again.

"Look, what are you all doing out here? I was trying to meditate before my one o'clock show, and I kept getting magical twinges from you guys. Last night was one thing; I was out at the club with Bill and Theo and could pass off weird twitches as part of the spin-dance contest we were all entered in, but in the middle of a lunch meeting? I had to leave on Tony, 'cause you guys are out here mucking with magic and I couldn't concentrate on who my new guest is supposed to be. And you _know_ how Tony takes that, right Irma?" The young daytime ecological radio-show hostess shared a meaningful glance with her fellow airwave jockey. Irma grimaced in sympathy.

Even though 'Lair on the Air' hadn't lasted long past high school, she'd managed to garner her six years of broadcasting practice into a weekly late-night rock request forum, and occasionally spotted other DeeJays for holidays, although she'd had to cut back on that after Martin's birth. But she and Lillian both worked for the same guy at KNOB, Tony Ree, a rail-thin, bottom-line-driven penny-pincher who couldn't understand why people tuned in week after week to hear how they were ruining the planet, and what they had to give up to save it. Irma thought it galled him all the more since his wife Rose was Lillian's biggest supporter, apart from Cornelia's Green Investors Movement.

Now, the Water-mistress watched Lillian as she tried to place the Rangers in her mind. As a fellow celebrity, even an obscure radio one, she could recognize Maddie and Nick from their various charity appearances. Nick built at least one bike a year for a good cause, and a couple summers ago, he'd built an ecologically-friendly motorcycle for that year's 'Save the Rainforest' drive completely out of recycled materials and powered by alternate fuels. It had even been styled to look like an organically grown machine, with asymmetrical framing, and metal leaves sculpted into the wheel spokes and along the fenders. Lillian had been at the auction herself, and had even bid on the bike when she recognized the Russells' name from Matt Olsen's 'Cobalt Dream', only to be outbid by a bespectacled Asian computer exec from Blue Bay Harbor.

She was still trying to place the blond-haired woman standing next to Nick, when the other woman next to Maddie turned around to face her finally, and Lillian grinned. _This_ one she knew, even better than the Russells, since they both worked from home studios and had spent several visits to various radio-technology shows together after meeting for an interview Lillian did with famed singer and eco-supporter Tanya Sloan. "Vida? Vida Bly, what are you doing out in the middle of the Heatherfield boonies with my crazy sister and her reprobate friends?" To a resounding chorus of 'Hey!'s and 'Boo!'s, the two women left their respective groups and hugged in the center of the crowd.

Grinning, Vida waved nonchalantly in her son's direction. "I blame him, mostly. Well, him and his brother."

"Oh, really?" Lillian looked around, but only saw Iggy and the vaguely familiar young man with red hair standing near Mallory. "Where is Toby?"

"Oh, he's probably wrecking Irma's kitchen right about now with Kyle and my younger son, A.J.," Clare chimed in, walking forward and holding her hand out to the as-yet-unintroduced young lady. Vida jumped to her rescue, even as Irma started sputtering in the background.

"Clare Thorn, meet Lillian Hale, ecohost of '_Earthfast'_, Heatherfield's answer to saving the planet. Lillian, Clare is the unfortunate girl who ended up married to my high school sweetheart, Chip."

"Chip … Chip _Thorn?!"_ Lillian sputtered, suddenly narrowing her eyes at Trip and Mallory. She suddenly remembered where she'd seen that boy last. Some damned 'Father & Son' tour group had been passing through the station, and two redheads had ended up locked in _her_ broadcast booth, when she was trying to interview (actually, interrogate) the Vice-President of Dinoco Oil about their long-delayed cleanup efforts after a recent spill in the Grand Banks. Young Troy had been pretty quiet during the episode, but Officer Charles Thorn had lived down to his last name, by teasing her (ON-AIR, no less!) about reading the guy his Miranda rights first, and making cracks about her 'badgering the witness'. (She'd been so tempted to use her powers and sick a _real_ badger on him, she'd paused her live broadcast for station identification, stiff-armed the still-locked door open, and run up to the roof for ten seconds of personal primal scream therapy. Her sound guy had told her later he'd heard her three floors below through the sound-baffling.) Now, she just looked at Clare with sad eyes, shook her hand, and said "You have my deepest sympathies."

"Hey, what was that about my kitchen?" Irma grumbled at Clare from behind Lillian. The three boys and V all started snickering.

"Well, they killed my toaster and coffeepot during a foodfight at breakfast, and it's lunchtime now, so I figure at least an appliance or dish apiece for their second go-round," Clare stated matter-of-factly. "Hay Lin swore she could handle all four of them herself, but after the wringer they put our heroes here through this morning, I'm not so sure."

Irma just smiled at this. "Hay-hay has her ways, believe you me. When Kyle and Martin are getting on my last nerve, like only brothers can," she started, and she looked at Clare and Vida in shared misery. "In she'll caper like the mad pixie she is and just smile down at them, and then off the three of them will go to fly a kite or climb a tree or build a snowman or paint a mural …" Her voice trailed off as she realized just how much Hay Lin doted on their two boys, those last living reminders of her beloved Eric. One of those weird thoughts crossed her mind, wherein she tried to picture herself as the forlorn widow spoiling her sons after Martin Tubb's untimely passing, and realized _she_ was the authority in their household. Irma Lair shuddered, horrified at the conclusion that she had become the _dad_.

Lillian set her features stonily. NO way were they getting off this easy. "Alright, you guys, nobody's answered me yet. What's going on?" The two groups traded several looks, then Trip leaned over and kissed Mallory on the cheek. Just as Lillian was getting over that shock, Mal pulled the Heart of Candracar out of her pocket, and looked straight at her.

"I really wanted to wait until Chloe was here to start this, but … Brace yourself, Aunt Lils. This one's a real doozie." Holding the Heart out at eye level, she cried "Guardians, UNITE!" and the lightshow started all over again from last night. When the second flash had faded, Lillian found herself looking at the new team of Guardians, mostly male, and all three of the guys looked eerily like her memories of a transformed Matt from when he'd been her Regent.

She whipped around to glare at her sister, only to find Cornelia snuggled catlike in the curve of Caleb's arms, with a smug grin on her face. "Whoa. Okay, so … that explains all the magical spikes going off the charts this morning. I take it they're all getting used to their powers still."

"That's right, Aunt Lillian." The radio hostess whirled to her right, looking up at the black angel who'd spoken with the voice of a bass cello. A quick head count told her who this had to be.

"Iggy?" she gasped in amazement. He merely nodded. She turned back to her sister. "But why were they waiting for Chloe?"

"Because she's the new Earth Guardian, Lil," Cornelia answered happily.

"How? I mean, there're five Guardians _here_ …"

The parents all grinned as Mallory stepped forward, Trip and the others forming up behind her. "Now there are six Guardians, Aunt Lillian." Mal raised her hand to start introducing the others to the Heart of Earth, when Irma jumped next to her, interrupting.

"Hey, Lils, remember when you found out our team's nickname? Witch? Well, Hay Lin came up with that, _and,_" she continued, turning to face Mallory and the other four teens. "She thought up one for you six last night!" Irma started pointing to each kid in turn. "M from Mal, our Heartwielder; Y for Yvonne, who controls Water; Sam, our new high-flying Air Guardian, is S; Troy gives us T, and is the freshly-minted Time Guardian; Ignatius rules over Fire with his Is; and our resident greenthumb, who is following in her mother's – and her aunt's – footsteps, C is for Chloe, champion of Earth!"

Each kid had scratched their initial into the construction dust around them as Irma singled them out, (Mal had scooted to the far end after making her M to add Chloe's C) and everybody read the word out together when they were done. "_'MYSTIC'_."

"Mystic, huh?" Lillian repeated, looking the teens over. "I like it … wait. _Time?"_ She narrowed her eyes again at Trip.


	10. Training Day Pt 4, Fight or Flight

M.Y.S.T.I.C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.

Chapter Ten

"Training Day"

Part 4, Practice

After her closer examination of Chloe once they all had arrived at Rootcore, Udonna agreed with the Oracle and Yan Lin. "So all you need is a disguising charm, to hide your pretty friends from prying eyes, and a spell to protect you from her Uncle, whose magic started this whole chain of events. Glamours are easy enough; _MOST_ people have a tendency not to look for the unbelievable. To keep Phobos from using you against yourself or others will require a deeper level of magic, however. I'm going to need some special ingredients for this." Udonna walked over to her potion supply cupboard, and after a quick search, telekinetically summoned a blank parchment and a pencil from her workdesk. Jotting down a few things while she hummed a bit under her breath, she then turned back to the others.

"I have everything here for a basic protective potion. For our specific purposes, we're going to have to add these ingredients, though." The Ice Ranger held the list out to Yan Lin and Kadma, who held it between them while Halinor and the C-girls looked around their shoulders so they all could read it.

'I'm getting too old for this," Kadma muttered, using her other hand to adjust her glasses back and forth on her nose to sharpen their focus. Chloe and Cordy could hear Cassidy snicker from the stairs, where she and Daggeron were catching up on their twenty years apart. (Neither of them was counting the twenty years of his enforced frogdom, or Cassidy's preview of the afterlife.) Yan Lin rolled her eyes, and read the list aloud.

"Wow, that's some grocery list, Udonna," said Cassidy, coming over from the stairs. She and Daggeron were still handclasped together. The other elder Guardians traded knowing looks, while Cordelia was giving Chloe a reassuring hug.

"Don't worry Chlo," the Princess started. "With this many able hands and sharp minds, finding this stuff should be a breeze."

"All except that last one, Dee." Chloe nabbed the list from Kadma, who was still fiddling with her glasses. "'Pre-transformation hair from the father.' Where are we gonna get that? It's not like Grandpa Julian has a baby book for Dad full of scraps and snippets like 'Caleb's last baby tooth' or 'Caleb's first haircut' for us to raid …"

Kadma took the parchment back, her glasses now folded up in her off hand. "Well, dear, you'll have more than a day to look. This other one doesn't bloom until tomorrow at midnight." She pointed out Udonna's third item, a firefern bloom. The magical flowers were notoriously difficult to acquire, as they only blossomed under moonlight on midsummer's eve.

"That's as well," Udonna countered, starting to place various bowls and bottles from the cupboard onto a tray. "The potion base will take twenty-four hours to brew anyway, before it's ready for the additional items." She held up the next bottle to the dappled sunlight that lit Rootcore. _"Hmm, looks like I'll need more hendrake root as well …"_ Setting down the bottle with the others, she waved her wand in Kadma's direction, and the extra item wrote itself on their list.

"So I'm looking at tomorrow after midnight for a cure, right Udonna?" Chloe asked.

"More akin to a vaccination, but yes, dear," the Ice Ranger replied. "Now, to the gathering of our ingredients, ladies … and gentlemen," she added as a thoroughly winded Leanbow and Zander straggled in, grinning like naughty kindergarteners.

"What ingredients?" her husband asked, grabbing a sport drink from the solar-powered cooler the younger Rangers had thoughtfully constructed years before. Leanbow only got halfway through the bottle before Udonna filched it with a smile, and finished it for him.

"The ingredients for Chloe's potion, Leanbow," Daggeron answered their leader. Zander whipped around to face him with a start.

"A potion foah what? Surely ye're not looking tou banish thiese blossoming beauties?" he said, passing a gentle hand over Chloe's hair. Her flowers 'waved' in response to their first champion. The Earth Guardians, old and new, smiled reassuringly at him.

"No," Dee tittered from her girlfriend's left. "The potion is to keep her safe from Phobos, who changed her dad into the 'Plantman of Meridian' in the first place. Her flowers … well, we're just gonna hide 'em from the unmagical. Right, Udonna?"

The Mystic Rangers' mentor shook her head. "Actually, girls, I'm thinking larger than that: a glamour to disguise your nature from all who don't already know about it," she said, taking Chloe and Dee's free hands. The young Guardian fought down the shiver Udonna's Ice-powered touch elicited, while Udonna raised Cordy's wrist to eye level to examine the purple bloom wrapped there. She 'hmmmm'd over it for a moment, then looked back over at Zander. "Your work, I presume?" she asked with raised brows.

"Too roight," he responded with his habitual smirk. "With meire seconds left, Oi swoouped in and saived thiese lovely young Sheilas from a faite worse than death. Ye should've bieen theah, Udonna, the suspense was palpable …" He proceeded to regale the older rangers with the story of the new Guardians' first transformation, and the mishap with Chloe's 'extra growth spurt'. Mention of the other teens brought back a sense of urgency to Dee and Chloe.

"Udonna, let's get moving on these ingredients. Chlo needs to get back to the others for practice," the Princess said.

"All right then," Udonna answered. "We'll need the hendrake root first; that's for the base potion, which I'll start brewing now. Fortunately, the hairs go in last, so that hunt can occupy us until the firefern blooms. Now, where to get fresh holly berries this time of year …"

"They're a winteh fruit, roight, Udonna?" Zander asked from his perch on the edge of the central desk in the room. Hopping down, he crossed to the world map that dominated one wall by the Rangers' magical monitoring system. Tapping the only continent entirely in the southern hemisphere, he grinned back at the others. "Oi guess its toime foah this Aussie son tou go home."

Mystic

Mallory and Yvonne turned out to be natural flyers; Will put it down to the ease of using the fairy-like wings the Guardians received. The guys on the other hand, even Sam with his years of bird-watching, were having a horrible afternoon. Finally taking pity on them, Matt asked Lillian if she'd transform him so he could show the three teens some of the basic techniques he'd learned as Shagon. With an exaggerated sigh, (even though she was as absorbed in the Guardians' practice as the others,) the Heart of Earth raised her hands to Matt's temples, and with a brilliant green flash, her Regent was reborn from his mortal form.

As she pulled her arm back, Lillian noticed the time on her watch. "Shoot! I've gotta go, you guys. I'm 'On-Air' in, like, ten minutes, and I still haven't found out who my guest is today." Turning towards her sister, she asked, "Did anybody rem to bring a camera?"

Vida had to hide her smile as all the other Rangers turned to look at Maddie, along with Matt and Will. Experienced camerawoman that she was, the Water Ranger merely held up the metallic blue Vericorder VI she'd grabbed from her saddlebag as soon as the kids had powered up. "Don't worry, Lillian, I'll catch it all for you. I even brought spare memory chips just in case." Maddie put the eyepiece back up to her face, and made a shooing motion at Earth's Heart. Divining her intent, Lillian winked, bowed, and folded back to her office in the KNOB tower. "That was so cooool …" Maddie murmured after her exit, and turned back to focus on the boys and Matt.

As her father led the other teens into the air, Mallory caught a glimpse of her mom's face. Will's expression was wistful and pensive all at the same time as she watched the four flying men. Sidling over, Mal asked, "What is it, Mom?"

Will's cheeks heated until they matched her hair as she turned to her daughter. "Just remembering some training sessions of our own from high school, baby."

"Oh." Mallory eyed her mother for a moment, and Will's blush crept from her cheeks to the rest of her face as she turned back to watch the guys. Matt was in the lead, and he had them practice loops, turns and wingovers in a complicated aerial dance that led from one side of the clearing to the other, swooping down to buzz the taller spectators and swinging up and around and through the half-finished shells of the three nearest house-frames. "_Ohhhh _…" Mal repeated, catching on, and giggled even as she moaned "TMI, that's for sure …"

"What is?" Irma asked, turning from Yvie, to whom she'd been explaining some of the finer tricks (and trials!) involved with being the Water Guardian. Seeing Mallory's expression, Will's completely red face, and what the former Guardian Leader was watching, and Irma's usually naughty mind connected all the necessary dots without either Olsen saying another word. "Yeah, I'm gonna miss those midnight midair rendezvous too, W," she said quietly to Will, giving her best friend a wink and a punch on the shoulder.

Vida snickered behind them, and Yvonne, guessing where the parents' conversation was headed, fake-gagged and took to the air again to go tease her cousins. She caught up with them just as a quartet of people came leaping out of the nearest elm. Taranee and Cornelia joined the Rangers (minus Maddie, who just waved distractedly from where she was filming,) in welcoming Zander, Daggeron, Cassidy and Chloe to the training field.

"Oi cain't staiy, Luv," Zander told V after their lengthly kiss. "Oi've gotteh get going tou Austrailia ter get some fresh Holly berries foah Chloe's potion."

"Holly berries?" ever-inquisitive Taranee asked, and Vida added, "Why Australia?"

"_Winter fruit, like mistletoe,"_ Cornelia quietly answered V, who nodded.

"Yeah, along with a whole slew of other stuff, Aunt T. Phobos-proofing me is gonna take like, thirty-six hours, still. And the biggest item on the list is gonna take that long to track down, min." Chloe turned to her mother. "Alright, 'fess up Mom. Do ya have any old snippets of Dad's hair hidden in a scrapbook somewhere? I need a lock of hair from each of you, _AND_ one from Phobos!" She gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of collecting _that_ one.

Taranee snapped her fingers, grinning between Cornelia and her daughter. "Phobos is easy! He's been living in the same stone room for the last fifteen years, right? He's bound to have left more than one handful in a corner that he's pulled out over that time."

Cornelia returned her grin, and added, "Well, if all you need is a snippet, honey, I'm due for a trim anyway; and I'm sure we can coax your father, Mister Shaggy over there," and she nodded her head to where Caleb was yelling out new maneuvers for the five flyers to try out, "to go under the shears in the name of a good cause."

"There's just one problem, C," Cassidy countered. "It's got to be from _before_ Phobos changed Caleb." The pair of W.i.t.c. traded stunned, despairing looks. Then, slowly, Cornelia's face lit back up as fresh inspiration struck.

"Blunk," was all she said.

"_Gesundheit_," Daggeron responded, as Cassidy and Taranee cheered, and exchanged high-fives.

"Go Mom! If anybody's gonna have a hunk of Dad's hair from twenty years ago, it's the stinkmonkey," Chloe crowed, using Irma's nickname for her Passling 'Uncle'.

"What about Blunk?" Will asked as she and Mallory came over to catch up with Chloe. The newest Earth Guardian explained her pending vaccine as brusquely as possible, and grinned at the looks the two Quintessence Wielders exchanged at the mention of the last ingredient. "Phobos' hair?" Will shook her head. "What happened to just changing you back into a human?"

"Oracle's decision, Will," Cassidy interjected. "'sides, we've already got Princey's hair covered. It's _Caleb's_ that's gonna be the prob. Hence, Blunk. Where is short, green, and rancid, anyway? I figured he'd want to be here for all the fireworks, if nothing else."

As if that had been the signal they'd been waiting for, Irma, Vida, and Caleb started to throw clay pigeons up into the air, and the four Guardians took turns at target practice. Iggy and Yvie were both pretty straightforward in eliminating the round orange disks; they merely summoned up handfuls of their signature elements, and blasted the targets out of their flightpath. Sam was more creative: he alternated minitornadoes with thunderclaps he generated by slamming his hands together before him. Trip settled on simply striking the brittle clay disks out of his way with superfast karate chops.

"Whoops, that's our cue, Chlo," Mallory said, grabbing her fellow cheerleader's hand. As she pulled the two of them out of the throng of parents, she held her hand over her chest and willed the Heart out and into her hand. '_Glad I had Mom show me that trick last night,'_ Mal thought. "Guardian, unite!" she cried, and she sensed Chloe transforming as they ran. Slinging the Heart of Candracar back around her neck, Mallory leaped up and into the air, pulling the nervous leaf-clad Earth Guardian behind her.

Watching Mal's wings beat the air in front of her, Chloe opened her awareness up to _feel_ her own new-grown limbs. Pumping them quickly, she lost herself to the sensation of the wind pushing past her as she spiraled around Mallory in mid-flight. The Energy Guardian laughed out loud, and brushed Chloe's shoulder as the two twirled in the air.

"Tag! You're IT!" Mallory streamed off, her pink energy wake looking for all the world like Tinkerbell's trail of pixie dust. Chloe yelled "HA!" at the obvious challenge, and zipped off after her. Mal led Chloe around the empty lot in a zig-zag pattern similar to the one her dad had led the boys through earlier. The girls looped, twirled, and wound their way back and forth, even jinking through the target practice zone, to give the Earth Guardian first crack at 'Defensive Flying 101'. It was there that Chloe got her first experience with a Guardian's element-related power.

Mid-turn, Chloe saw a handful of clay pigeons come flying in her direction. (Little did she know, this was on purpose: Sam and Vida were whispering suggestions back and forth and, having already seen her formidable hand-to-hand skills the night before, as well as admiring her and Mal's quick grasp of flight, Sam now wanted to see how the Earth Guardian handled herself in an aerial ambush.) Chloe held out a hand toward the advancing targets, as she'd seen the others do, and called out "EARTH!" What happened next caught everyone except Cornelia by surprise. The six clay pigeons (two from each of their volunteer throwers) froze in midair! Chloe admired her wonderwork for a moment, and then decided to include Mallory in on the 'fun'. With a flick of her still-extended hand, she sent the half-dozen orange disks careening towards the Quintessence Mistress several yards ahead of her.

With an 'Eeeek!', Mallory instinctively flung her arms out to stop the clay targets. Lightning frizzoned out of her hands, blasting five of the pigeons to microscopic particles, but only melting off one side of the sixth. Chloe, still in the line of fire, spun and dipped to avoid the barrage of bolts. The new Earth Guardian looked back up to see the sixth pigeon spin towards Mallory's head with finality.

In the split second before impact, Mal closed her eyes, so she missed whatever happened to make everybody else gasp, then start applauding. Cracking an eye open, she found herself facing a tanned fist wrapped around an orange clay lump inches from her nose. Looking past the fist, she relished the sensation of becoming lost in a warm pair of sea-blue eyes under a familiar mop of copper hair.

"Heya, beautiful. Come here often?" Trip asked, as he moved his arm, and she drifted closer. Mal smiled widely as she took the slagged pigeon from him.

"You saved me …" she murmured as she examined it. Looking back up into his eyes, he swore he could see tears forming in hers. "My HERO!" Mallory cried as she threw her arms around Trip's neck and kissed him fiercely. Catcalls and wolfwhistles abounded, accompanying the groans of the pair's parents. As they pulled apart, Trip saw a wicked gleam in her eyes; it was the only warning he got.

Mallory brought her knee crashing up into Trip's tender bits, then took the pair into a rapid spin. Several revolutions later, while everyone else was still exclaiming over her unprovoked attack, she threw him flailing straight toward Sam. The shocked Air Guardian barely stopped his brother's headlong collision course in time.

Mal looked at each of the other girls briefly, and mouthed the words _'Mogriff, now'._ They both just nodded, and immediately, the three young women set upon their teammates: Yvie yanked Trip from Sam's protective grasp; Iggy found himself beset by Mallory; and Chloe started in on Sam.

"Alright, Troy-boy. Let's see what more you've managed to learn in the land of Faeries and Cheerleaders," Yvonne said as she fired off a series of roundhouses at Trip. Still winded from Mallory's vicious kneeing and his subsequent collision with Sam, Trip found himself stuck on the defensive. That is until he managed a midair duck-and-spin that sent a solid kick into Yvie's unguarded midriff. Flipping back, Yvonne made a whip of water that twirled behind her to wrap around his wrists, trying to hinder his fighting abilities.

Trip's new super-speed let him keep one hand free, and he hauled back with the restrained one to reel her in to striking range. Realizing he was using her own power against her, Yvie hastily dissolved the whip, but let her momentum propel her towards Trip anyway, fists extended. Trip brought his arms up in a crossguard as she slammed into him, then speed-swung his hands out and caught her wrists. Stealing Mallory's idea, he started spinning the two of them, looking for a target of opportunity to send the rebelling Yvie into.

Sam found a split second to utter his regret to the Gods about wanting to see more of Chloe's abilities. Then he was too busy trying to keep her off of him. Chloe used every strike she'd ever learned from Uncle Aldarn and her father, Caleb. Then she started improvising, trying out moves she'd seen in movies and TV. To her chagrin, she found that while she had a serious edge on Sam in speed, he more than made up the difference in endurance. No matter how often she got past his considerable guard, she just couldn't make a dent in his muscular frame.

Sam wasn't sure he could have managed a successful counter-attack, as much as Chloe had him working just fending her off. _Then he remembered the extra weapons he had at his disposal._ Bringing his mighty feathered pinions around in a great arc, he buffeted her from all sides with wind and wing. Reeling, Chloe reached out to grab hold of him so she wouldn't fall out of the sky. As he slammed her with his wings again, her instincts took over, and her _hair_ wrapped around him, too!

"Whoa … (gasp) … Hale ..! (choke) … Cut the … (cough) … 'Medusa act' … (wheeze) … out!" Sam managed to rattle as her golden locks and emerald vines entangled his throat. Seizing hold of her shoulders to support her weight, Sam cupped his wings and slowly lowered them to the ground. As her feet made contact with Earth, Chloe relaxed, and so did her prehensile extensions.

Mallory and Iggy had never been in the same classes at Uncle Caleb's dojo; conflicting schedules had time and again seen to it that neither knew where the other stood in the ranks of belts earned or forms learned. So when the pair rushed each other for the first time, fists charged with elemental power, they were both winging into virgin territory.

Cassidy's prophesied fireworks lit up the clearing as lightning and fire surged around the two new Guardians. Iggy found much to his frustration that, while he may have had an edge on Mallory in reach, she was suddenly faster than he could even keep track of, thanks to the energizing boost of Quintessence. For every successful blow he managed to land, she placed three, and for each attack of Mal's he did block, she drilled one through.

Finally catching hold of both her hands at the same time, he hauled her close. "So, the old Mogriff maneuver, huh Mal?" Iggy asked, having caught her silent command. He was sweating despite his new heat affinity, simply from the amount of exertion she'd put them through. "Did you forget that Mogriffs don't get the elemental attacks?"

"Just one thing, Ig," Mallory panted back. "Who said _we_ were the Mogriffs?" Her hair suddenly sparked like a livewire as she reared back and headbutted him. Knocked out, Iggy dropped like a rock. Still caught in his grasp, Mallory tried to break their fall, to no avail; her wings just weren't up to taking both of their weights.

Trip caught what was happening out of the corner of his eye as he spun with Yvie. "Sam, catch!" He cried releasing his still-fighting cousin towards his brother. Sam made a flying grab for Yvonne as Trip streaked past them to grab onto Iggy's wrists, and between them, he and Mal lowered the suddenly un-Guardian-formed Iggy to the ground. The pair's eyes met as they lay him gently down, even as Taranee and Will both came scrambling forward, both screaming Iggy's name.

"Omigod, omigod, Oh … my … GOD!" Taranee panted as she slid to Iggy's side. The other former Guardians were right behind her, along with the Red and Pink Rangers. "What did you do, Mallory?!"

"Huh?" the shaken new Guardian answered blankly.

"How come he changed back?" Irma asked from Taranee's left. Will, Cornelia and Cassidy 'Yeah'd from Iggy's other side, the question nagging at them. "We've been knocked out before, and never …"

"Un-morphed?" Vida supplied, as Yvie, Sam, Chloe, and the rest of the parents came running up. "You're lucky, then. Used to happen to us all the _time_, right, Nick?" As the most gung-ho of the Mystic Rangers, he and V had suffered more than their fair share of forced depowering.

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "Half our fights usually saw at least one of us sprawled out, our Armor shut down by a particularly nasty or lucky blow by whatever monster _du_ _jour_ the Master and his minions summoned." He traded sympathizing looks with his sister-in-law, then returned his attention to the stricken Fire Guardian.

"Well?" Will asked her daughter. Mal thought hard for a moment.

"I – I remember panicking, 'cause my wings couldn't hold both of us up, and he'd just gone down so _fast_ …" She looked down at the Heart, still dangling around her neck. "Do you think the Heart of Candracar could've changed him back? 'cause I thought he was too heavy?" Will and Taranee exchanged perplexed glances and thoughts for a second, then looked back at Mallory.

"It's possible, baby." Will reached down and traced the bump now forming on Iggy's forehead where Mal had rammed him. "The Heart _has_ done things in answer to an unconscious request before. What worries me is the fact that you couldn't lift him yourself. I don't remember any times the super-strength we get wasn't up to carrying one other person, especially another Guardian."

"The boys have gotta be heavier than any of us, Will. Even more in Guardian form, with all those muscles and the wings," Irma interjected.

"But Irma, you've carried _Vathek_ before," Taranee countered, "as well as Frost; and neither one of them is a lightweight."

"Maybe it _is_ the Heart," Will added to the argument. "I mean, the sixth Auramere is brand new, right? So maybe it's drawing a bit of power from the other five until Yellow-orb is up to par, y'know?" The other former Guardians all got pensive looks on their faces as everyone thought that one through.

Just then, Iggy shot upright in the center of the crowd. "Would everybody keep it down? I've got a killer headache, here …" He was abruptly cut off as Taranee, Mallory, Will, and Irma all hugged him in a rush, with cries of relief.

"Ladies … air …" he gasped, and when the four had let up, Iggy looked around at all of them. "Yes I'm fine, already. No, I don't need a break. And Mom, it's endearing when Aunt Will calls Mal that, but I've been taller than you for almost three months, now. _Please_ stop calling me baby."

Everybody went still. "What are you talking about, Iggy?" Irma asked. She looked at Will, then Taranee. "T didn't say anything just now."

"Well, if it wasn't her, then one of the rest of you's got a well-hidden crush, 'cause _somebody_ just said 'My baby's okay'."

"Son," Taranee started, to make him look back at her. "_Nobody_ said that. I _thought_ it, though. But I don't remember projecting at all …" She traded more glances with her fellow W.i.t.c..

Iggy thought about that for a second, and remembered the extra powers that were the legacy of the Fire Guardian. "Soooo … what? Now I'm in the same boat as Cordy?" he moaned, looking at his aunts and mother beseechingly.

"No," Taranee answered. "I didn't learn to listen for other people till years later, b … Iggy. For the longest time, all I ever heard telepathically was the other Guardians. Since you guys just got your powers, and from us, we old and new Guardians _should_ be the only ones you can 'tune in' to." Taranee wasn't the only one to notice her son's alarm as her explanation sank in.

Iggy looked around him at the daunting number of female Guardians. "Uh, no offence, Mom, but I might just be spending a lot of time over at Trip or Dave's 'til I learn to 'tune _out'_ certain unnecessary messages …"

"Wow, and I thought we had issues with our parents," Irma deadpanned. Most of the other heroes, young and old, started laughing.


	11. Training Day Pt 5, Prepare to Diet

M.Y.S.T.I.C.

Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.

Chapter Eleven

"Training Day"

Part 5, Preparations

"I thought you said K's mom was _fun_ to hang with." Toby whined. The three pre-teens had spent the last hour toting boxes for Hay Lin and Elyon, preparing Caleb's dojo for Chloe's birthday party.

"Yeah, well, just wait. If she helped put this party together, I can promise ya fun's in the house. No matter how old _or_ young the guests." A.J. cast a glance at Martin, perched precariously on his mother's shoulders, taping up one side of the giant banner Hay Lin had printed out while the kids enjoyed a hurried fast-food lunch.

Over sixteen feet long, the banner was pastel pink with 'Happy Birthday, Chloe!' scrawled across it in bright green cursive letters. Strategically drawn leaves made it look like the whole message had been grown, and the 'I' was dotted with a sky-blue flower. (Elyon's idea, and addition.) Hay Lin had placed the banner over the archway between the foyer and the main room of the dojo, and had moved the two potted plants from their usual corners so the banner appeared to have sprouted from them. Elyon, in between trips with the boys to get the various boxed party-ware from her beat-up Volvo wagon, would whisper up to Hay Lin whether she needed to raise the ends or middle of the banner to get it even.

When both artists were satisfied, and all the boxes were inside, Hay Lin got the boys set up to start filling balloons. When everything was ready, including a cargo net she'd borrowed from her hangar to contain the balloons, she proposed an impromptu race. Handing each of the three older boys a different colored balloon supply she said, "All right, guys. The one with the most filled in ten minutes gets to run the games tonight." With a wicked wink at Elyon, she added, "And the guy with the least done is Chloe's slave for the night."

Toby, A.J., and Kyle traded looks of horror as Hay Lin stretched out a balloon of her own and yelled, "Ready? GO!"

Seven minutes later, the trio was huffing and puffing between balloons, taking longer to fill each one. Elyon and Martin paused in tying off the two balloons Toby and Kyle had just handed to them and looked worriedly at Kyle. While ahead of both the other boys, his lead was coming at a definite risk. He was almost blue in the face.

Hay Lin finished with her some-teenth balloon, and leaned over to give her older son a calming buffet on the back. "Breathe, _erzi_, passing out now would be an automatic lose."

Kyle took a huge breath then let it out, slowly. Grinning he replied, "Thanks, _muqin_."

Toby's ears pricked up. "Hey, Kyle, did you just call her '_Mougi'?"_ he asked, reminded of one of his and his dad's favorite old television shows, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".

"Huh? Noooo," Kyle answered, chuckling. "Its pronounced 'mu-cheen'. It means mom in Chinese." The adults both chuckled as well.

"Speaking of mom-ness, I'd better call Cordy and find out what's keeping her away from all this fun." Elyon got her phone out. A fast-aging old flip-style, she checked the battery and signal strength quick, and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief when she saw both were mostly full.

Hay Lin, catching her act, grinned. "Will kept it at her place most of the time, so it'd stay full."

"Remind me to thank… her…" Elyon started to say, her voice trailing off as her phone beeped and a pre-recorded voice said, _"We're sorry, but the person you have dialed is out of our calling zone. Please try again later."_

"Whoa. I got Cordy one of those satellite phones at a military surplus sale for her thirteenth birthday. There isn't anywhere on _Earth_ those things aren't supposed to reach." Elyon closed her eyes and huffed for a second, then dialed again, only to get the same result.

"Alright, now _I'm_ worried too," Hay Lin spouted. She closed her eyes, trying to telepathically contact Taranee, in hopes the former Fire Guardian could then contact _her_ predecessor, Halinor.

_Mystic_

After another brief stop-off back in Rootcore, Zander popped through a series of trees around the Pacific Rim, Dee in tow. They finally stepped out of the last tree in a grey fir grove near Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, only to fall over the edge of a newly collapsed gorge.

Zander grabbed wildly for a protruding root with his free hand on their way down, finally catching hold of one fifteen feet below the ridgeline. With a yowl of indignation, Cordelia reinforced her grip on his other arm with both hands and sank her nails into his leather wrist guard. The two dangled there for a couple of minutes, just catching their breath. Then Zander cleared his throat and grinned through the burning pain in his shoulders.

"Hey Cordy. Much as Oi'd luv tou haing around heah with you, we _are_ on a mission. D'ye think you could reach moy Morpher, sou we could get outteh this?"

"_All right,"_ came her telepathic reply a minute later, as she started fast-breathing in preparation for her impending exercise. _"But I'll warn you now, this is prob'ly gonna hurt."_

Cordelia took one last deep breath, (and she could hear Zander doing the same above her,) then clenched her abs, swung her legs up, and wrapped them around Zander's knees. Another quick breath, then she tightened her legs' grip, let go with her right hand, and reached around to Zander's other hip and grabbed his Magiphone out of its holster. Flipping it open like she'd seen the Rangers doing the night before, she held it up in front of her. _"Now what?"_

Realizing he couldn't very well wield the Wand in their present predicament, Zander gritted his teeth for a second while looking around them better.

"Ahah! Okaiy, aim tou our left at that clump of voines, and say 'Earth!' Jest firmly picture ouah friends theah pulling us out, and it's as good as done."

Still conserving her breath for any exertions, Cordy nodded and sent back _"Here goes …"_ She leaned back first to see the vines in question, then in a move that made Zander cry out in agony, she switched hands between his arm and the Mystic Wand lightning fast. _"Sorry,"_ she 'pathed, aiming and concentrating on the actions like he'd said to.

"'S'Okaiy," he moaned, his eyes starting to water.

"EARTH!" Cordy exclaimed, putting as much authority as she could behind the command. The Mystic Force Earth Magistaff responded to the unfamiliar voice much as Clare's had the day before. With an unexpected boost of energy, the previously quiescent vines lashed out, seized hold of the dangling pair of holly-hunters, and fairly threw them back up over the cliff.

Their unplanned landing upset a small family of dwarf kangaroos. Watching the two-foot tall marsupials hop away, Zander spat out a mouthful of leaves and directed the habitual Bly Grin at Dee. "Heah ye gou, Princess: Austrailia. No worries." Cordelia just collapsed, laughing at him.

_Mystic_

Yan Lin and Halinor were lounging in the afternoon sun along with Kadma, Udonna and Leanbow. Just as the elderly Zamballan Ambassador was reaching for the drink Leanbow had brought her, Daggeron and Cassidy came back with a giggling Clare in tow.

"What's so funny?" Yan Lin asked, knowing the kids were eyes-deep in learning their new powers by now. The three new arrivals just traded a look before bursting out in fresh gales of laughter.

When she could finally breath, Cassidy gulped out "Remember this morning's 'natal-day frivolity'? Well, Iggy got roughly the same treatment from Yvonne just now, Yanny. And when he tried to use his heat-aura to dry off quick, he ended up _steam-cleaning_ himself instead. Oh, god, I never thought I'd see the day he'd have a 'fro again …"

Halinor took a second remembering the length Ignatius had grown his Dredlocks out to, (almost a foot,) and then tried to picture the resulting puffball it would have turned into. "Lord, he must look like a lightbulb." The freshly-returned trio could only nod, grinning, and everybody laughed.

Halinor was just getting her breath back, when a telepathic shout from Taranee gave her an instant headache._ "Ooooh! Calm down, Kindling, I hear you! What is it?"_

"_Can you all 'port back?"_ Halinor could feel Taranee's worry through their shared element. _"Emergency meeting, and as Vida just said, Strength in Numbers, Halinor."_ As Taranee was sending this, Daggeron, Leanbow, and Udonna's Mystic Morphers trilled, at the same time that Cassidy and Clare's cell phones rang. After a cacophonous couple of minutes, it turned out everyone had gotten the same message.

"What _is_ the emergency?" Udonna asked Nick, who'd called her.

"_Queen Elyon can't reach her daughter Cordelia by phone or telepathy. After the attack yesterday, she's understandably more than a little worried."_

"Didn't Chloe tell anyone?" Udonna's brow furrowed. "Princess Cordelia wanted to help find the ingredients for her potion. She's 'Down Under' with Zander as we speak." The Ice Ranger could hear a hurried spate of questions at Nick's end.

"_So then why didn't he answer Vida's call just now?"_ The Rangers all looked at their World Display, looking for danger signs, and Yan Lin and the other Elder Guardians immediately started worrying, too.

Udonna crossed to the map and, thinking clearly of Zander and Cordelia, tapped it with her snowstaff. Sure enough, a green star twinkled on the northern point of Australia, with a tiny white dot next to it. As they were watching, the star flared brilliantly for a second, telling the three Ranger Mentors that Zander had just used his powers.

"Well, they're alive, so now what?" asked Cassidy. "Back to practice?"

Daggeron, who was standing behind her, leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "_You_ just don't want to miss any more of the show," he muttered, chuckling.

"That's not true!" she countered, smiling all the while. "I want to be there just in case something goes wrong, and they need some help, medically." Her former teammates all beamed at her, knowing how much catch-up the revived Water Guardian had to do to get her nurse-practitioner's certification.

"It does not mean you won't enjoy watching the kids in action," Kadma huffed, slowly climbing to her feet. Yan and Halinor both hastened to assist her. "I profess a desire to see my successor's daughter showing off too. Come ladies, let us away from this serene courtyard and see what sport the children are making of our life's work."

Halinor shook her head. "At least one of us needs to reassure Queen Elyon in person. I'll go see to that." She closed her eyes for a few seconds, concentrating. "Yes, thank you, Hay Lin. Now please step over a few feet, and I'll be right there." With those final words, she folded from in front of the group of elders (and Clare) and, a second later, Yan Lin heard telepathically _"Oh, Yanni, you're gonna love the party tonight! Your little Hay-hay has outdone herself!"_ With that mysterious missive, she was gone.

"Much as I'd love to return and watch all the fun, I know I can help out here, Udonna," Clare said, smiling. "No sense letting all my years of potion-brewing go to waste now, is there?" Udonna beamed at her old apprentice.

"And the help will be most welcome, indeed. It's already started, but I've got to go find some hendrake root before sundown, and it still needs stirred every twenty-one minutes. In fact …" Udonna and Clare disappeared back into the tree-tower of Rootcore, already talking over the potion for Chloe. Leanbow shook his head, grinning after his wife and niece.

"Well, those two situations are being handled. Is there any way one of you could follow Zander and the Princess? I'm sure Her Majesty would feel better knowing the poor girl had more than Zander looking out for her."

Kadma was about to voice her agreement, when Yan interrupted. "Don't get me wrong, Leanbow, I'm all for sending at least one extra body after that pair, but it would have to be discreetly, and _definitely_ not for the sole purpose of 'keeping an eye on the Princess'. Young Cordelia can take care of herself. She's learned to, despite the lifestyle of a pampered lady. School alone has given her better survival skills than even we former Guardians can speak of."

Leanbow nodded reluctantly in agreement, then asked "So who do we send?"

Cassidy cleared her throat. "Why not sick Blunk on them?" Yan Lin gave a startled snort, and Kadma rolled her eyes, a slow grin breathing fresh life into her tired features.

"Only you, Cass. Only you," the elderly Earth Guardian uttered. Daggeron looked back and forth between the three women, perplexed.

"Who, or what, is Blunk? This is the second time someone has mentioned it as a solution to a problem, and I still haven't gotten a better description to work with than 'stinkmonkey'." Cassidy broke down in helpless giggles, and Kadma's eyes lit up.

"Oh, that is the best name I've heard for him yet. Irma's work, I presume?" Yan Lin nodded sagely at her oldest teammate. "But how do we find him? Passlings don't exactly keep reliable addresses, Yan."

"Back to the practice field, first. I've a pretty good idea where our favorite scavenger is," Yan answered. "Especially since he was with Caleb last night, but didn't come to Candracar with the rest of them." She opened a portal to the newest site of Hale Investments, and motioned Cassidy, Daggeron, Kadma, and Leanbow through, then closed it behind her as she followed.

_Mystic_

Winky sat up from her napping spot in Blunk's 'bestest hidey-way'. When the Queen's Court had dispersed into the Infinite City for safety, Elyon had told Winky to "Wait for Blunk somewhere only _he_ can find you." While the 'hidey-way' certainly met that qualification, Winky knew it was a poor second to where she'd wanted to flee. But even her home dimension probably wasn't safe from this new, old threat.

Winky looked down at the curled-up lump that was her daughter, still blissfully asleep in the 'comfy corner' Blunk invariably put in each of his treasure troves. _'My poor Blinky,'_ the green-skinned female thought, running a gentle hand through her daughter's shock of vibrant maroon hair. The slight touch was still enough to wake the hypersensitive, hyperactive seven-year-old.

Sturdy and sneaky as her goblin mother, already taller and lankier than her passling father, Blink was a lean, green, (mean when she needed to be,) and cunning gobling. "Wha …_'YAWN'_ … ssup, Momma?"

Winky rolled her oversized eyes. Her daughter had definitely spent too much time with the Earth kids, even if she _was_ Princess Cordelia's personal valet. Granted, Her Highness only spent weekends in Meridian during the school year, but apparently even that was exposure enough to the strange culture and customs for some of it to stick.

"Shhhh," she answered, glancing around nervously. "We're still in hiding, waiting for your poppa. I'm not even sure where we are. Blunk only ever brought me here once, and that was almost three turns of the seasons ago. It doesn't look like he's been back since then, either." She slapped the pile of blankets the two had been resting on in emphasis, and a cloud of dust, scentless with age, puffed out.

Blink took a longer look around as she woke up more. Blunk's usual collection of 'previously-owned merchandise' was piled haphazardly around the two she-gobs in ever-rising piles, _almost_ sorted by type. There was the inevitable fallout wherever two large piles strayed too close to each other. The whole collection was housed in a former predator's den, if the large pile of well-gnawed bones in the back was any indication.

'_Probably vanquished by some daring knight on a noble quest,'_ Blink thought. Standing and stretching, she told her mother she was heading for the privy.

"Don't wander too far, Blink. The Light only knows what else lives in these caves."

"Yes, Momma," the gobling answered, rolling her own eyes as she turned away. Knowing her father, Blink dug around in the pile of 'softies' he had left in this den, and soon came up with a mostly-used-up roll of industrial tissue. _'Well, better than nothing; thanks, Poppa.'_ She headed off to a secluded corner near the pile of bones to take care of her business.

She was trying to crouch down in a useful low spot when the layer of 'cave-crud' gave out under her feet. With a wild cry, Blink found herself sliding toes-first into a small tunnel that quickly devolved to a moss-slicked slide. The passage carried her almost a hundred lengths (Meridian's version of a meter, and equal to the average height of a passling, coincidentally) and spat her out into a crystal-lit, fern-filled grotto.

Staring around dazedly at the alien beauty of subterranean overgrowth, Blink worked on getting her breathing back to normal. As she clambered to her feet, she could hear her mother faintly, crying her name. Moving back to the mouth of the tunnel, Blink noticed the stains on her new dress, as well as the source of them, namely moss and mold, and the organic detritus they had been growing in. Apparently, she wasn't the first being to think that low spot made a convenient toilet.

"_Great, now I smell like Poppa,"_ she muttered. "Momma! _Momma!_ Stop yelling! I can hear you, okay?" When Winky's cries just became shriller, Blink braced herself, and in a fair imitation of Aunt Hay-hay, cupped her hands and bellowed fair to bring the roof of the cave down. _**"MOMMA!"**_

Silence reigned for several seconds, then: "Blinky-poo? Where are you?" A certain seven-year-old gobling gritted her teeth, silently cursing the day she'd met her passling grandmother. She would _never_ live that one down.

"Down here, Momma! The hole next to the …" Blink stopped abruptly. Her mother wasn't the most dexterous person, and she really didn't want _both_ of them stuck in this hole, no matter how stunning the scenery. "I'll be right up!" she yelled instead.

After another brief glance at the beautiful yet bizarre growths surrounding her, she looked more closely at the tunnel. If she could get herself out of here without her mother panicking worse … then she noticed the hand-holds fastened to the passage's ceiling. From the looks of the mismatched materials, Poppa had made them himself. Blink grinned, reached for the first handle, and started the slow climb up.

_Mystic_

"Why are we headed into town?" Cordelia asked.

"Well, Oi figured, whoy beat aour brains out and aour bodies up troying te foind woild holly? Me da's second cousin still lives roight heah in Darwin, and hie lives next door tou a shiela who manages a grieenhouse. Jest in and out, easy-pieasy." Cordelia started laughing. "What?"

Unable to reign in her giggles right away, she sent her answer back telepathically. _"Aunt Will says that all the time!"_

"Noice tou siee Oi'll fit roight in with you lot," Zander chuckled back and, almost as if it were an afterthought, he waved his Mystic Wand over his outfit, turning it back into his 'civvies' before they stepped into the Darwin suburb from the bush.

_Mystic_

Despite her intentions to go find Blunk right away, Yan couldn't help but stay and watch the six teens for several minutes. M.y.s.t.i.c. had gone back to aerial target practice. But where the parents had been throwing the targets up in the air before, the kids were all carrying handfuls of clay pigeons now, and throwing them at each other in a chaotic flying free-for-all. Each Guardian was doing his or her level best to blast the others' missiles to shrapnel, while still trying to get a few 'tags' in themselves.

"How do they tell who gets in the most hits?" Cassidy asked Vida. She noticed that the Wind Ranger had unfocussed her eyes. Cass tried it too, and found she was able to watch more of the action that way, instead of trying to follow any one of the young flyers at a time.

"Poster paint," Vida responded. Cassidy had to give her head a shake to bring her attention back to the conversation she'd started.

"Hwa ..?" the former Water Guardian uttered. V smiled.

"Irma's idea. We got some poster paint in each kid's primary color, rolled a bunch of clay pigeons in 'em for all six, and those are the ones the kids're throwing right now. When they all run out, we count up all the spots on everybody, and see how they did. It was originally just gonna be to see who could get hit the _least,_ but … natural competitiveness won that argument." The two women went back to watching the final frenetic minutes of the 'fight', then jogged forward to help count spots when all the teens landed.

Shortly … "So let's see, that's three kids with a positive number, and three that actually _got_ hit more than they managed to deal out." Vida looked around at her fellow counters. "Okay, these kids definitely will need to practice more …"

"Just not today," Caleb countered, all too aware his adopted sister was currently wreaking havoc at his place of business with his wife's best friend, all for his daughter's birthday. He turned to the newest Earth Guardian. "Sorry, honeysuckle. Better luck next time, though." Chloe shrugged back. She was too busy wondering what had happened to Cordelia, since she'd heard the Princess hadn't answered her phone.

"Our winner, with most hits dealt, after returns were counted in, is Mallory, with seventeen," Vida stated.

"Sixteen," Irma countered. She lifted her hat off to show the bright pink fist-sized spot on top of her head where one of the new Quintessence Mistress' clay pigeons had walloped her. Will had to duck out of the crowd before her laughter got too loud.

"Sixteen, which ties her with Yvie," Vida continued without batting an eye. "Who wins our original objective, of least hits _taken,_ with nine." She gave her niece a round of applause, complete with phantom fanfare. Trip leaned Mallory over in an old-fashioned Hollywood kiss, thoroughly smearing both their splotches. It earned them a round of wolf-whistles again.

"I knew you'd win," he told her breathlessly after they both stood up. "But I had to wait 'til they were done counting to do that."

Yan gave the two winners each a congratulatory hug, (using a micro-layer of Air to stay paint-free herself,) then turned to face the nearest pair of Rangers, Nick and Maddie. "Could I get one of you to help me?" she asked. Maddie looked away from where she was panning across the paint-splattered kids, paused the camera, and joined Nick beside her.

"What is it, Grand-Yan?" Maddison asked, and the elderly Chinese woman smiled. Kyle had been the last holdout of the four younger kids when the parents had all come down to her room in Candracar last night, and he'd taken great pains to introduce everyone to his 'Grand-Yan' personally. Nick grinned at the reminder as well before Yan answered.

"I'd ask Vida for the helping hand for this, but she keeps saying her magic's not up to snuff. Which is unfortunate, because finding spells are mostly the province of Air. I need to find Blunk, and fast."

"You're not alone, Grand-Yan," the newest Earth Guardian said from behind her. Chloe had just stepped through the magical equivalent of a car wash to get all the paint splotches off. Her floral friends were still waving ecstatically from the excess water Irma and Cassidy had poured over her.

"What else do we need short, green, and stinky for?" Taranee asked. She was standing at the end of the 'Guardian wash', holding a stack of warmed towels and presenting one to each teen. She held one out to Chloe, but the golden-haired girl just shook her head with a resigned grin.

Pointing to her flowers, she said "Too late, Aunt T'ree."

"So what about Blunk?" Taranee asked again.

"I wanted to send him to follow Cordelia, in case she and Zander run into more trouble than they should. She's apparently lost her phone between here and Australia already, and …" Yan lowered her voice so only the four near her, Air-enhanced gifts aside, could hear the next bit. "Let's just say the older Rangers don't have as much faith in Zander as they could."

"Pivvlefrits," Chloe muttered. She certainly didn't want to be worrying about her BFF in the midst of everything else, but how were they going to send Blunk to help Cordy _and_ look for her dad's hair?

"Piv … whats?" Maddie asked, while Yan and Taranee both chuckled.

"Huh? Oh!" Chloe giggled. "It's _PIVvlefrits,"_ she repeated, enunciating. "It's something Dee's dad used to say when he was mad at one of us kids. I think it's from Basiliade, his home dimension. He never _would_ tell us what it meant."

"Let's find Blunk, first, and then figure out which job for him is more urgent," Yan said. She turned back to Maddie and Nick. "Can either of you manage a finding spell?"

"After fifteen years running a motorcycle shop, chasing after runaway nuts and bolts? You better believe it," Nick said. He drew his Mystic Morpher out, and flipped it open to wand mode. _"Galwyn Mysto Locutor, Blunk!"_ he chanted. Like Will the night before, he hovered upward several inches, and spun until he was facing downtown Heatherfield. In his mystic mind's eye, he saw a vision of an alleyway, with two dumpsters and a grease bin, telling him he was looking at the back of a restaurant. Then the vision flew up, until he was looking down on the same alley. Doing his best to remember landmarks from that aerial snapshot, Nick shook himself out of the semi-trance, and turned back to the gathered women.

"I don't know how much this is gonna help," he started to say, even as he found he had _everyone's_ attention. _'Ahem.'_ "Blunk is in an alley behind a restaurant downtown. All I've got to go on is an overhead view though, so … What's so funny?" Nick stalled as the older Guardians and their kids all started laughing.

"_Oh, we know _exactly_ where he is,"_ Taranee told Nick telepathically, not trusting her voice.

"I really must tell Chen they've gotten the ultimate product endorsement," Yan Lin finally managed to say between laughs. "You know your cooking is good when the best scavenger in the cosmos keeps coming back for your mu shu pork."

"Oh, God," Trip gasped, catching on. "He's behind the _Silver Dragon?"_

"Yep!" Chloe and Mallory both chirped. The latter leaned into his still-soaked shoulder, and everybody around the pair backed up a foot hastily as the duo emitted a burst of static sparks.

"Whoa," Yvonne uttered, grabbing her just-discarded towel back up and vigorously redrying every inch of her overabundant frame better. "Note to self," Sam could just hear her saying from under the scrubbing cotton. "Water and electricity do _not_ mix."

"How many people can we safely teleport to this Silver Dragon without raising suspicion?" Leanbow asked, curious to see this Blunk creature after having met everyone else. His granddaughter Yvie had given him the quick who's who while he helped the parents count paintspots.

Yan _'hmmmm'_d for a moment. "Our usual limit is five," she said, grinning over at Will, Irma, Taranee, and Cornelia. "Since we've both got missions for Blunk, I think it behooves us to have Cornelia and myself along. Anyone besides that is welcome, of course."

"I want to bring Daggeron to meet him," Cassidy piped up. "And take him to lunch, too," she added, giving her long-lost beau a winning smile. Trip and the other Rangers' teens led the next round of wolf-whistles as their Knight Mentor leaned down to kiss the former Water Guardian.

"I'm not sure who needs the chaperone more," Irma quipped to the flustered Nick and Matt. "Those two, or our younger couple." Both men gulped.

"That's four then," Yan chuckled, while Cassidy blushed so hard her freckles shone as _lighter_ spots across her cheeks. "Anyone else?"

"I'll go along as far as the restaurant, Yan, but after that, I really have to get back to Zamballa," Kadma said, stepping forward slowly. "I've enjoyed seeing all this youthful exuberance again, but I find I've long since used mine up." She got a chorus of _'Awwww'_s with that, and smiled. "Now, now, I'm not going to bow out completely for the day. But if I'm going to be in any shape for the party tonight, I'm off for a quick nap first. I'm sure the lovebirds can come collect me after their late luncheon." Kadma gave Cassidy and Daggeron a significant nod, and the two returned it.

"Think you can chance a look in the dojo and make sure our artists haven't totaled the place?" Caleb asked Cornelia.

"As _if_!" she countered. "Besides, Halinor already told Yan it looks spectacular, and I don't want to ruin the surprise those two have no doubt whipped up."

"_Going_ now …" Cassidy sing-songed from behind Cornelia. The former Earth Guardian gave her husband a parting kiss and her daughter a good-luck wave before stepping with the others into the fold Yan opened up.

"Alright, that's flight training, target practice, and sparring; what's next?" Nick asked Caleb and Irma, and the teens all groaned and turned back for more practice.

_Mystic_

Yan, Cornelia, Cassidy, Daggeron, and Kadma stepped out of the fold to the back alley of the Silver Dragon downtown. With simultaneous sniffs, Yan and Cornelia both gave a sigh and said, "Good memories." Cassidy and Kadma both grinned, and the elderly Zamballan ambassador turned to her two former teammates.

"I'll see you two later tonight, Cass, Yan." She turned and opened up her own fold back to Zamballa, then looked back over her shoulder. "Oh, and MacLean?" Cassidy looked up from where she was weaving her fingers into Daggeron's. "Happy birthday," Kadma said with a wicked wink, and disappeared through her fold at the same time a splatter of refuse from the nearer dumpster cascaded over her Water-powered friend.

Cassidy wiped egg fu yung out of her eyes and spat out a bean sprout that had slid in while she screamed. "Oh, it's on," she muttered, while Cornelia and Yan laughed. Daggeron stood dumbfounded, just looking back and forth between the three women.

"I … _'heehee'_ … think we better clean you up before lunch," Cornelia eventually managed. She lifted the majority of the solid waste back off Cassidy and sent it back where it came from. With a sigh, Cass raised the humidity around herself until she was dew-covered, then used the water to scrub off the liquid bits. When she was done, Yan Lin called up a warm breeze to dry her up.

All this didn't go as unnoticed as the three former Guardians could have wished. Fortunately, the observer was the very person they'd come in search of. "Pretty red Guardian done with shower? Blunk find lunch!" the passling said from inside the second dumpster. The four whirled around in surprise, Cornelia with a long-suffering groan, to see the diminutive green scavenger hip-deep in the receptacle the Lins normally used for non-food waste. Cassidy giggled.

"What?" Cornelia asked, wondering what was that funny.

"He looks like Oscar the Grouch traded up!" Cassidy mumbled to her. Cornelia snickered as well for a second, then stepped forward.

"Oh, that's okay, Blunk. We already ate. But I'm sure the Lins won't mind if you help yourself." The former Earth Guardian was turning to introduce the passling to Daggeron, when Blunk grabbed her shoulder.

"Princess safe? Queen safe?" The poor green guy's face was scrunched up in worry.

"Yes, Blunk, they're both fine," Cornelia answered.

His eyebrows had just leveled out in relief, when Yan said "Actually, that's why we've come to see you. We're not sure about Princess Cordelia. She lost her phone. Again."

"Where Princess?" Blunk cried, worried all over again.

"Uh, Australia, apparently," Cassidy answered. She stepped forward to calm him as well, and immediately regretted it. Setting one hand over her nose and the other on Cornelia's wrist, she sent _"Faugh! How do you stand the _smell_?!"_ telepathically.

"Years_ of repeated exposure,"_ Cornelia returned with a sigh and a smirk. "Blunk, we need you to find out whether Cordelia's okay, without letting her know you're there. We don't want her to know we're worried about her."

"Want Blunk be sneaky with Princess?" Blunk asked uncertainly. "Princess not trust Blunk?"

"_NO! _No, she does trust Blunk, er … you, it's just that …" Cornelia faltered, her brain temporarily screwed up again with trying not to talk passling.

"We don't want the Princess to think we don't trust _her,"_ Yan concluded for her. Cornelia looked at her in thanks. "We also have another quest for you, noble Sir Blunk," she added. "We need to find some hair of Caleb's from many years ago, before the children were born. Do you think you could help with that, as well?"

"Princess first, of course," Cassidy said, knowing that there was a much more lenient timetable for the potion ingredients. "We've got until tomorrow night to find the hair." She stepped back a few spaces until she could breathe clearer again, to find that Daggeron had come forward when she did, and they collided with matching _'Oooof!'_s.

"Blunk can do both!" the passling said valiantly, giving the former Guardians a Meridian salute, bowing with a fist clenched over his heart. He drew out the old Tonga tooth from one of his patchwork vest's many pockets, and gave the women and Daggeron a huge smile. "Just wait here!" he added, drawing the tooth across the air next to him in the dumpster, generating a fold. He leaped through with a wave like Kadma had.

"Why am I not reassured by his antics?" Daggeron asked. Cassidy giggled again.

"Oh, he's as reliable as they come," Cornelia responded. "If Blunk says he can find something – or someone – then they're as good as found. It's the 'discreet' part I'm never sure he'll manage. Against the average unobservant modern-day Earth person, or beat down peasant, he's stealthy all right. Up against someone who knows what to watch for, or someone like Cordy and her senses, well …" She shrugged. "I'd say his chances are pretty even."

Cassidy grinned at the other two women, and grabbed Daggeron's hand. "Come on, let's go grab lunch while we're waiting, and I'll introduce you to more of the extended family." She led him around to the front of the restaurant, while Cornelia telekinetically summoned a pair of leftover crates for herself and Yan to sit on. Yan said a tired "Thanks," as she settled herself to wait for Blunk.

_Mystic_

Blink had emerged from the cave of wondrous beauty, and she and her mother had foraged some grubs and edible mushrooms around the 'hidey-way'. Blink was all set to start looking for another exit, when Blunk folded into the middle of the room. He immediately started to tear through a pile of discarded trinkets, mumbling under his breath. Blink and Winky's sharp ears both caught him muttering about "Princess Dee" and "hair".

"What's wrong, Poppa?" Blink asked. Blunk looked up at the two she-gobs in wonder, as if he hadn't remembered they were there. Then his face split wide in a smile, and he dove back into the trinket pile, to emerge seconds later with a plain steel ring, which he threw to Blink. She just barely caught it, and looked at it, puzzled. Blunk meanwhile kept searching through the shifting knick-knacks until he emerged again with an old locket. He held it up, crowing.

"Everything found!" he cheered over and over, dancing around his daughter and waving the locket. He stopped eventually, out of breath, and sat down happily. "Now just have to send you to help Princess in … in … Ostreliya!" he stammered. "She losted her Earth phone," he added. Then he took the ring back from Blink, crammed it on her largest finger, (where it still dangled loosely,) and said, "Think of Princess and you go to her! Then give her ring and tell her think of Queen!"

"This will take me to Princess Dee, Poppa?" Blink inquired dubiously, giving the ring a twirl around her finger.

"Yes! Yes! And she need _your_ _help!"_ he said proudly. She straightened up at that tone, and smile back shyly. One of her biggest fears had always been that she was only working as the Princess' valet because her father was friends with the Queen, and that Cordelia would never really need her for any true duties. Now, she was going to be able to do something nobody else could for Princess Dee.

Giving her father her best Meridian salute, Blink clenched her tiny fist tightly around the ring so it wouldn't fall off. Then she closed her eyes and pictured Princess Cordelia as clearly as she could: upturned nose, pointed ears, bright blue eyes, pale blonde hair, and attitude.

Feeling herself start to shimmer through a teletransport, Blink said to her parents, "T T F N, Ta-ta for now …"

Blunk turned to his pale wife. "She make us proud, Winky. Come, go to Heatherfield, have lunch!" he popped back to his feet, put the locket in a pocket, and took the Tonga tooth back out. Then he grabbed Winky's hand, opened another fold, and pulled her with him back to the alley behind the Silver Dragon.

_Mystic_

"G'day, Patricia. Thainks again foah the help, luv," Zander said to the friendly brunette who had greeted them at the greenhouse. She'd helped the pair find not only the holly berries they needed, but a live dahlia plant large enough they could harvest the required amount of root from it (without harming the plant) for Chloe's potion as well. Zander was chivalrously carrying the large pot while Cordelia held the door, the holly, and his Morpher. They thought it had rung a few minutes ago, but they'd been in the middle of an intersection surrounded by other people with cell phones, and couldn't be sure. So the Princess had agreed to keep it in hand while he haggled - there was no other word for it - with Patricia for the two plants.

As they were coming out of the greenhouse, Cordy caught a familiar scent coming from around the corner of the building, leading back to where they had entered Darwin. "Uh, Zander? Wait here a second, okay?" She flitted to the corner of the greenhouse, and peeked around the side to see what she couldn't through the pair of steamed-up windows.

"No worries," he grunted, sliding the large pot down on the convenient bus bench in front of him.

Blink caught sight of the Princess at the same time Cordelia spotted her. "Dee! Dee!" she cried happily, sprinting the rest of the way up the side of the strange glass building that smelled like a garden. Wrapping her skinny arms around the Princess' legs, she almost wept in relief. "I showed up in a tree and almost fell off a cliff and I found your phone but it was broken and I followed you all the way here and it was a really, _really_ long walk and …"

Cordy laughed. Only Blink could make one simple tracking sound like a grand adventure worthy of their parents. "So why are you here?" she asked the sniffling gobling.

"Poppa said the Queen was worried," she said into Cordy's hip. Holding up a strangely flattened satellite phone, the Princess could see why.

"Aw, man, my mom's gonna kill me …" Dee moaned, taking the destroyed device from Blink.

"Everythin' alroight?" Zander asked from the bench.

"Oh, just some technical difficulties," Cordelia responded. "C'mon," she said to her valet, leading the gobling over to Zander. "Zander, meet my handmaiden, Blink. She's Blunk's daughter. Blink, this is Zander, the Earth Wizard."

Zander gave a surreptitious look around to make sure no one else had heard that last bit. The residents of Briarwood may have accepted the reality of magic after a year of attacks by the Master years ago, but the world at large still had no real clue. Reassured, he knelt down to Blink's eye level. "G'day, missiy. Oi can siee whoy they named ye Blink. You've got _gor_geous eyes."

Blink mumbled a shy "Thank you," eyes averted, and blushed. Cordy laughed.

"You're incorrigible, aren't you?" she accused Zander, to which he just gave her back the Bly grin.

"Let's get back tou Heathehfield, Yer Hoighness. Oi gather yer royal mum's gonna bie spaire with us bieing incommunicadou this long." He hefted the dahlia plant again and started to lead the way back to their original tree of entrance.

"Ooooh! I almost forgot!" Blink surged forward, getting back in front of the pair. "Poppa gave me this ring, Princess Dee, and said it will take you to your momma." She held up her hand, and the two could see the loose ring glinting as it spun around her finger. She flipped in off and handed it to Cordelia.

"Well, if it'll save us another half-hour of tree-travel, I'm all for it," Cordy said, trying the ring on several fingers until it fit just right on her left middle digit. She looked at the other two expectantly, and Zander did his best to motion with his occupied hands.

"Boy aull mieans, Princess, lead on," he clarified his gesture.

"How does it work, Blink?"

"It's a teletransporter," the gobling said, and wrapped a hand each around Cordy and Zander's nearest wrists. "Just think of the Queen, and we'll be right there."

"Then how did you end up where we arrived, instead of in the greenhouse with us?" Cordelia asked.

"Poppa mentioned you lost your feletone, and I got distracted …" Blink muttered, scraping one toe in a circle. Dee and Zander both just smiled. Having just had their own tree-porting mishap, they were forgiving in the extreme.

"Let's not kieep the Queen waiting," Zander said. Cordy nodded, and concentrated on her mother. With a green shimmer, they disappeared from the side of the greenhouse, with only a curious brunette left inside to wonder what had happened to the friendly man and his American niece with such odd taste in plants.


	12. Chloe's Party

_M. Y. S. T. I. C._

_Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe_

**By:** _A J_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.

Chapter Twelve

_"the Party"_

Just before six o'clock, the parents gave their trainees a reprieve, and packed them into the various cars to rush to Caleb's Self-Defense Center. Chloe groaned when she saw that the parking lot In front was already over half full with their friends' and classmates' parents' cars._ "I thought you kept the guest list small, Mom!"_ she hissed to Cornelia. The freshly-former Earth Guardian just grinned back at her daughter.

"I did, honey. I invited your homeroom. I may have mentioned in the invitations that they were welcome to bring along any of your classmates I happened to miss, of course …"

"Well, that explains why the whole cheer squad and half their steadies are here," Mallory crowed. She was riding with the Hales because her bike took up the whole back seat of her parents' car. Yvie meanwhile had done something to the center post on her bike, folded it in half, and strapped it to the back of her dad's chopper, then donned her helmet and ridden pillion with her mother.

As they got there, Zander and Hay escorted the six teens to the gender-respective changing rooms, pointing out lockers with a clean change of clothes for each of them. "Shower if you need to, but _hurry!"_ Hay told the girls.

"Uh, Aunt Hay-hay, what about my friends?" Chloe asked, raising her hair in one hand. At Hay's confused look, Chloe glanced at Yvonne, who shot a quick squirt of Water at her new teammate's handful of blonde hair. The spontaneous growth of a leaf and a blue flower from it made Hay slap her own forehead.

"Oh! I completely forgot about them in today's rush, C.J."

The three girls now looked at her in confusion for a second. "Who's C.J.?" Chloe finally asked.

"Well, you are, of course! Irma's not the only one who can give out nicknames, after all!"

"Ooookaayyyy, but why C.J.?"

"Well, for Cornelia Junior! What else?" The other girls laughed while Chloe facepalmed. "Alright, you three, showers, then dress." Hay suddenly turned no-nonsense on them. "We gotta hurry. Irma and your mom'll be in in a minute to help with dresses and hairdos, if you want anything more complicated than a ponytail," she said to Mallory. "And as for your floral friends, I say let 'em shine tonight, C.J." She beamed at Chloe. "Everyone'll think it's part of the party." She shooed them into the showers, ignoring their questions.

Since she'd brought them in through the delivery door on the side of the dojo, none of the girls knew what she meant. But the former Air girl's quirky mind could already tell they were going crazy with curiosity, and beat them to the next punch. _"Hey, Dee. No telling the others what we've got in store for 'em out there, okay? And pass it on to T, Halli, and Iggy, too."_

The new female Guardians hurried through a wash and rinse as fast as teenage female humanly possible, and were all out again just as Will and Irma stepped into the changing room.

"Are they ready?" Irma asked her lifemate, sounding almost as hyper as Hay usually did.

"For what, exactly?" Yvie asked her predecessor warily.

"Your new dresses," Will said with a smile, opening the locker next to Mallory. She pulled out a length of cloth that shimmered under the fluorescent lights in …

"_Pink?_ Mommmm …" Mal moaned.

"I heard it's traditional for new Rangers to take their color on as part of their everyday clothes, and since half your new team is Rangers' kids, I think it's only fair to adopt the tradition," Will smirked. Mallory's long-standing feud with the color pink in her wardrobe was an ongoing source of amusement among the older Guardians.

"Easily remedied, Mal," Irma said, trying not to laugh _too_ hard. "Lightning comes in purple, too." The former Water-mistress nabbed a corner of the rose-colored satin, and with a moment's concentration, she turned the whole gown a pale lavender color.

"Whoa," Yvie muttered from where she had taken her new navy-blue dress out. "When can you teach me _that?"_ Irma grinned at her, and stepped over to help her successor climb into the satin monster Hay had found for their new Water Guardian.

"Soon as things calm down enough," she muttered.

Beyond curious now, Chloe opened up her locker. "Oh, Aunt Hay-hay," she gasped as she took out the priceless leaf-green gown inside. "You didn't …"

"One of a kind," the Air Guardian smiled. "Just like you, C.J." She helped unfurl the slim silk sheath so Chloe could step into it, and buttoned up the side for her.

"Did you … make this?" Chloe managed to gulp.

"Of course! You think I'd go just anywhere for one of my nieces' birthday dress? Grandma helped, too! How could she not, for our firstborn Guardian girl?" Hay tittered.

"So _that's_ why you've been so tired lately, huh?" Irma accused. "Folding to Candracar and back without a Heart's help, Hay-hay? So then … how come you didn't know about Luc before last night?"

"I've been going straight to Grandma's room and back, silly." Hay leaned over and kissed her lover across the aisle way. "Give me some credit. I knew I'd get tired out enough, why add all the extra walking in?" Will and Irma just traded a tolerant glance, and shook their heads, grinning.

"There you go, and the Heart doesn't clash too bad with the lavender, either," Will told her daughter after zipping her up.

"Hey, we match!" Mal and Yvonne said together, catching sight of each other's dresses.

"Oh, shoot!" Hay blurted. "I didn't even go back to the same _store_ for Yvie's dress! How'd _that_ happen?"

"Just … chalk it up to the wonders of mass distributing, babe," Irma grinned. "And count ourselves lucky that Cordy's doesn't match, too. Otherwise, they'd look like bridesmaids." Mallory and Yvie exchanged a smile and giggled.

"Aunt Irma, considering their relationship," Mal said, pointing at a blushing Chloe, "don't we anyway?" The three women laughed.

_Mystic_

The three Guardian boys were already washed, dressed and mingling when Iggy heard the warning from Cordy and grinned. He hurriedly passed it on to the two Thorn boys as well. Sam and Trip, in nearly identical black jeans and plaid shirts (Trip's was yellow and black; Sam's was white, grey and black.) with their hair slicked back, looked even more alike than they had as Guardians. Iggy was in his usual red track suit, his uncle Pete's number airbrushed on the back. He stood with his mother Taranee and Yvie's parents Nick and Maddie Russell by the 'warm snacks' end of the _hors-d'ouvre_ table. Hot wings, Vienna sausage wraps, and Nachos competed for his attention against the nearby giggle of the cheerleaders.

As the shortest, Cordy was caught in the center of the present Sheffield Cheer Squad members. Sporting a lovely new tan dress with black accents that matched her hair, she preferred to see it as playing hostess to her own party in miniature. She practiced what her mother's courtiers called 'steering the conversation', guiding the other girls through such topics as Sam's introduction to Heatherfield's junior-high society, commentary on the dresses (or lack thereof) of the other girls present, and a quick (if not too subtle) questionnaire on the party décor, which she'd helped pick out.

Now they were on to each other's current or potential boyfriends, and Cordelia was sweating out the inevitable moment Latanya and Delilah would stop one-upping each other's comparison of Dave and Iggy to ask her if she was finally at a party with a (gasp!) date. Delilah was just turning her way, and Dee was cringing inwardly, when there was a concerted gasp from the far side of the room. It was followed by a wave of exclamations and murmurings that spread from the door of the locker rooms across the partygoers to the snack tables in the far corner by Uncle Caleb's office.

"Wow," Cordelia heard Iggy whisper. In blatant disregard of all her telepathic etiquette lessons, the Meridian Princess opened up her mind to his. Seeing the spectacle across the room that had everyone's attention from the vantage of his height compared to hers, she grinned.

"You can say that again," she sent to him with a sigh.

"_Get outta my head, Dee! I got enough issues!"_ he roared back mentally. With a contrite _"Eeeep!"_ she shut off their link. It didn't dampen her smile from the image of Chloe's entrance to her 'Happy Fifteenth Birthday Party' by a long shot. In fact, it gave Dee a wonderful idea.

Concentrating anew, she sent an 'idea-pulse' through the still-stunned crowd. The results were perfect.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHLOE!" the whole room cheered as one. Cordy smiled at the received images her already-open mind got from several people of Chloe's teary gasp, then grin.

"Cordelia Eleanor Brown," Dee heard hissed quietly from Iggy's direction. With a guileless glance, she turned to see her Aunt Taranee glaring at her.

Unrepentant, Cordy sent one of her 'seen' memories of how much Chloe had loved Dee's 'crowd choreography'. _"Ground me all you want, Aunt T'ree. _That_ was worth it."_

"_I gotta agree, Mom,"_ Iggy chimed in, in Dee's defense.

"_Not what the point is,"_ Taranee answered them both, looking back and forth in exasperation. _"You'll be joining her for the next several lessons of telepathic control, so you'll hear the lecture either way, son. But I'm not going to spoil this party for Chloe by stealing her favorite dance partner … _partners," Taranee amended with a grin at them both, _"before this shindig's even started."_ She glared at Cordelia again. _"Just promise me that's the only extra surprise, young lady."_

"_Absolutely, Aunt T'ree,"_ the young Meridianite replied, with a firm nod. Then with another grin, she added _"Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta go keep my girlfriend all to myself for the rest of the night."_ Iggy and Taranee laughed at that quietly.

Yvie and Mallory waited the furor of Chloe's entrance out, then stepped quietly from the locker room. "C'mon, I'll introduce ya around," Mal said, tugging her new magical teammate towards the gaggle of cheerleaders.

Cordy emerged from their midst as they converged. "Hey, you two! B R B, I'm gonna go catch Chlo before she gets buried in dance requests!" The Meridian Princess flitted off through the crowd.

"What was that all about?" Latanya asked. She and the other Heatherfield cheerleaders reformed their half-circle around Mallory and Yvie, watching the blonde girl maneuver through the surrounding bodies.

"Huh? Oh, you know those two," Mal responded. "Cordy spent all afternoon running errands with her mom, while Chloe was with the rest of us, showing some new friends around town. She just wants to see what gossip she missed."

"Is _he_ one of those new friends?" Delilah asked, pointing out Sampson Rocca behind her.

"Yeah," Mal grinned. "Lucky us, huh?" She gestured at Yvie next to her.

"Well, me not so much," Yvonne said, smiling. "He's my cousin." She held her hand out to shake.

"Really?" Rhyssa breathed, eyeing the boy in question as well. She took the proffered hand almost as an afterthought.

"Oh! Sorry," Mallory started. "Girls, this is Yvie Russell, my net-pal from Briarwood. Yvie, this is the Sheffield Junior Varsity Cheer Squad." She introduced Yvonne to Rhyssa, her sister Delilah, Delilah's BFF Latanya, Ronnie Weir (arguably the smartest girl in Sheffield that year, easily alongside Dee,) Faith Chavez and _her_ sister Felicity (not actually a cheerleader, since she hadn't gotten her twin's natural coordination, but one _heck_ of an equipment wrangler for the squad,) and with a wave to get her attention back from her steady across the room, their final member Jess Campbell.

Daughter of Matt Olsen's childhood friends Mandy and Joel, Jess was practically another extended cousin to Mallory. To this day, she and the others were unsure how Jess had never found out about W.i.t.c.h. and Meridian, since the curious girl seemed to know about all their other family secrets. She even knew that Cordy wasn't entirely human, though Dee hadn't taken any great pains to hide her Basiliadian side since the onset of puberty, or the inception of SPD's Earth Base in New Tech City.

"So, Jess … How's Aaron?" Felicity teased as the other girl joined them. The cheerleaders around them groaned. Felicity had made it abundantly clear to them all that she fully intended to steal Aaron Titus from Jess. The crazy part was that Jess couldn't care less. She and Aaron had been inseparable friends since grade school, and he really only had eyes for her.

"Ask him yourself," Jess smiled, nodding at the big blonde boy coming across the room with a pair of sodas. "Hey, babe," Aaron said, trading a quick kiss with Jess as he handed her her drink.

"If he's taken, I can see why they're making such a big deal over Sam," Yvonne murmured to Mallory with a grin.

Mal returned it, replying, "Yeah, Oracle knows his ego could use the boost after last night."

"Which part of last night?"

"You know," Mal continued, with a nod at Chloe and Cordy, now coming back toward them with hands clasped. _"When the two girls who started dinner hanging all over him ended it with each other instead,"_ she whispered back. The two new Guardian girls giggled.

Trip appeared at Mal's side. "Hey, M. Wanna dance?" She startled too easily, he thought as she jumped, then glared at him. He made a warding sign in her direction with raised brows.

"Chill, Cuz," Yvie said, rolling her eyes.

"How many cousins do you have?" Rhyssa asked, with an oversweet smile his way.

"Sorry, Rhyss," Trip smirked, linking elbows with Mallory. "I'm spoken for."

"Just four," Yvonne answered her with a sigh. "Him, Sam, and the Dangerous Duo over there," she added, pointing towards Toby and A.J. among the half-dozen adolescents who'd come to the party with parents or siblings.

"I think we need to start calling them the Terrible Trio," Trip countered, watching his younger brother, their cousin, and Kyle Lyndon challenging the other three preteens to an impromptu relay race across the room and back – with full punch cups. _"Oh, here we go …"_ he sighed, nudging Mallory and Yvonne and nodding his head towards the younger kids.

"What're you all staring at?" Chloe asked as she and Dee finally made it back across the room. Rhyssa pointed out the kids dodging through the crowd.

"I think your dad's gonna have one heck of a cleaning bill tomorrow," she said with a wicked grin. Her sister Delilah snorted, then both got a better look at the sheath of a dress Chloe was wearing, and whistled.

"_Nice_ dress, Chlo," blonde Rhyssa said, reaching out to feel the material.

"I know, right?" Chloe responded, grinning. She did a little twirl in place, showing it off. "Aunt Hay-hay's work at its best, I have to say."

"So what's the _embroidery_ say?" Jess asked, conscious of her boyfriend next to her admiring the view. Chloe took a better look at the symbols stitched down her left side.

"My name, I think … Aunt Hay wrote them out for us once, and it looks the same."

"Longer though," Cordy countered. "Like she added something …"

"Since when is an 'at' sign a Chinese _kanji_?" Trip chuckled.

Cordy whipped his way with a "Huh?" and he pointed back to a character near the end of the column of embroidered symbols.

"_Zimu ge, _not_ kanji,"_ Veronica Weir corrected. She was one of many students who'd taken the Chinese language course Mira Lyndon had started teaching at Sheffield Institute after her wedding to Eric's grandfather.

Chloe meanwhile was twisting around for a better look. "OMG," she told them all and laughed. She pointed to the final set of characters after the . "My dress is a photo caption! 'Chloe Hale at fifteen'," she read out, tracing a finger down the embroidered column of _zimu ge._ The rest of them laughed as well, and Cordelia sent Hay Lyndon a telepathic acknowledgement. All she got back was a mental image of Hay's trademark megawatt smile.

"Not that that wasn't absolutely fascinating," Iggy interrupted, "but … let's get this party started!" He pulled Delilah from their midst and whirled her into the middle of the floor, where the pair started 'gettin' down' to the music that began as if on cue.

Couples formed quickly, after that. Latanya and Dave joined their friends on the dance floor, along with Ronnie and Simon. Felicity tried to insinuate herself on Aaron's right, but he was already holding Jess's hand with his left, and the other girl watched with renewed frustration as the oblivious pair wended away from her. 'Give it up, sis," Faith muttered her way as she spun past in Sylvester's arms.

"He'll be mine, you'll see," the Latina huffed.

"Just don't stop believing that," Rhyssa told her, crossing to properly introduce herself to Sam Rocca. "Well, _helloooo_, handsome! Now, what's wrong with this picture?" she asked, sidling up to the solitary, stationary Air Guardian.

"Oh, hi … Rhyssa, right?" Sam asked the blonde girl.

"The one and only. So, I'm wondering … why aren't you tripping the light fantastic with your cousins?" She pointed to where Trip and Yvie were dancing with Mallory and Iggy's friend Rick.

"I'm not much of a dancer," Sam replied.

"Nonsense. Anyone can dance, handsome. C'mon," she said, nabbing his arm and leading him out to the middle of the gyrating crowd. "Just follow my lead." She pulled him close and started to sway in time to the music.

"Uh, okay …" They started out alright. Then the next song began, and the tempo sped up. Sam managed to knock her into two other couples in quick succession trying to match her movements, and Rhyssa stopped his jarring hip-swinging with a hand to his chest.

"Whoa, whoa! Wow, handsome. You weren't kidding! Ya know? I think this'll require some professional help. Hey 'Lilah!" she called over to her sister. "We've got a new victim for ya!"

"Should I be scared?" Sam gulped at the look of delight on Gothic-garbed Delilah's face.

"Naahhhh … well, yeah … she's a bit of a slave-driver, my sister," Rhyssa said with a wicked grin his way. "But never fear, if there's anyone who can untie those two left feet of yours, it's 'Lilah," she added as her sister and Iggy sashayed their way through the crowd finally.

"So what's this about a new victim?" Delilah asked. Iggy spun her in place, and she let his hand go to seize hold of Sam's.

"Handsome Sam here can't dance, and I thought he could benefit from your unique tutoring skills, sis," Rhyssa told her.

"Is that so?" Delilah purred, running her free hand through Sam's long bronzed hair. Iggy suddenly started chuckling, then cracked up completely. "What?" she groused his way after a moment.

"It's … just … You're Delilah … and he's … Sampson!" Iggy finally managed to gasp out. Rhyssa started laughing too at that. Sam harrumphed, rolling his eyes, and Delilah blinked at all three of them.

"I don't get it," she muttered.

"It's from the Bible," Sam replied, and led her away from the cackling pair. "We'll be safe enough over here," he continued, when they got to an unoccupied space in a corner. "So ... you really think you can teach me to dance?"

"Nothin' to it, but to do it," she replied, and set about arranging their limbs for a basic box-step. "Now, just do as I say, and we'll have the girls linin' up for lessons with _you_ by the end of the night …"

_Mystic_

"So, how's the party?" Elyon asked Cornelia, when the pair met at the refreshments table a short time later.

"I'm not sure, Elly. Let me get back to you when we're not both so busy playing caterer to be able to enjoy it." The taller blonde woman nodded down at both their snack-tray laden hands, and Elyon grinned.

"Okay, granted, the whole anonymous servants thing is definitely missed here in Heatherfield, but this is still a thousand percent better than having my brother crashing a party at the palace …"

"Did someone mention me?" a distressingly familiar voice inquired from the other end of the table. The pair turned, aghast, to see a casually-dressed Phobos idly twirling a glass of punch in his long-fingered hands. He took a polite sip, and wrinkled his nose at the unfamiliar sensation of carbonation. "Ah, these bizarre Earth drinks … I'd forgotten. Still," he added, setting the cup down in favor of a Vienna wrap off the tray still frozen in Cornelia's grip. "It's leaps and bounds better than that drab prison food after fifteen years." He ate the wrap, and surveyed the crowd. "Now, where is my niece, dear sister? I have a very special birthday present to give to her." Cornelia and Elyon, still gaping, were beaten to the answer.

"Prison really _wasn't_ kind to you, your lowness," Caleb rasped from behind Phobos, the sound of metal scraping out of a scabbard ringing below his voice. "This is Chloe's birthday, not Cordelia's."

"Oh? So sorry, the date must have just slipped my mind, these many years in a small stone room deep under my rightful kingdom," the two-time ruler of Meridian sneered, turning to face Caleb. The former rebel leader put the point of his drawn shortsword against Phobos' stomach. "Now, is that any way to greet an old friend of the family?"

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't gut you where you stand," Caleb snarled.

"How about him?" Phobos asked lightly, as a wiry young man with sun-streaked dark hair came from out of the crowd and batted Caleb's blade away with one of his own.

"Neimad?" Elyon questioned, her heart dropping at the sight of one of her highest-ranking guards. The man before them was in charge of the magical prison Phobos had been incarcerated at, until last night. "What are you _doing_ here? What are you doing with _him_?"

"Oh, didn't he mention it when he started to work for you, sister dear?" Phobos turned to beam at his companion. "He's my son."


End file.
